Fear
by k0m0d0-342
Summary: What happens when your nightmares are real? When your worst fear becoems your worst enemy? No one likes salt in their wounds, but the events in the all too near future may prove too much for our heroes to bear... sonicxamy KnuxRouge ShadowxOC
1. Well this makes no sense

Herm... what can I say? I wanted to write a horror story. And so I will. Besides, there are **_way_** too many horror stories that focus on shadow.

"Hey!"

Sorry, Shadow, but it's true. This story includes EVERYONE! Except for Big, Cream, Charmy, Espio, Vector, Sally, (cough-HATE-cough) mina (no clue who THAT is.) Tikal, Eggman, The many, many fan-characters named Spark, Everyone the cat, Nobody the platypus, (they're MINE! MINE! -Hisses-) Voice the Magic Taco, (mine as well) and anyone or thing that ever existed that is not Amy, Sonic, Knuckles, Fliara, Alexi, Rouge, Tails or Shadow. Sorry, Mr. Toaster oven, but the world of fanfiction has no room for household appliances.

So, this is a horror story. As you _should_ know by now. It will be scary. I hope. And there will be rivers of blood... literally. I'm not joking. You think I'm kidding, don't you? Well you just wait and see!

Okay, this chapter isn't going to make much sense, but don't worry, it's not supposed to!

* * *

Amy was dreaming. In this specific dream, Amy was walking own a beach, the sunset making everything seem a different color than it really was... It was vivid and drastic, like an abstract painting... The ocean was a dark purple, the sun shining off of it like gold. The sand's hue was bold golden ochre, not the usual tan. The sky was a bold and magnificent fuchsia, with wind-wisped clouds, their intricate swirls almost glowing with their light yellow sheen. It was a very nice thing to look at. She walked down the beach, her eyes scanning the horizon. Amy had the oddest feeling that someone was looking for her, and to verify this feeling was a shout coming from behind her. It sounded distant but urgent.

"Amy!" It called. Amy turned around, looking, but she saw no one. The voice sounded familiar...

"Sonic!" Called Amy. She had suddenly remembered exactly who that voice belonged to.

"Amy! Amy! Are you there?" He called. Amy looked around for him, but did not see him.

Amy awoke, and sat up in bed, moaning groggily. What a weird dream... she placed a hand against her head, annoyed to find a headache resided within her skull. Again she moaned softly, rubbing her temples with her fingers. So much for a good night's sleep. She looked around, a little surprised to see that it was still dark out. What time was it? She looked to the clock on her dresser, to see that it was 2:30am. She groaned, and looked up at the ceiling.

_Just great_ She thought to herself, lying back down. It would take hours to fall back to sleep now. She turned on her side and tried to relax, when she heard someone knocking on her front door, downstairs. She sat up, wondering if she actually heard it. After all, who would be knocking on doors at 2: 30am? It came again, this time accompanied by yelling.

"Amy! Are you there?" She heard Sonic's voice say. She sighed. So _that's _why she had dreamed that. Oh well. What was he doing here? And, if he had any reason, why at 2:30 in the morning? She decided she would ask him that later. She got out of bed, and walked out of the room, entering the hall. Sonic knocked on the door again. Amy sighed.

_What could be so important?_ She thought as she walked down the stairs and to the front door, opening it.

It was dark out, and there were no streetlights, so she couldn't see him very well, but she could clearly tell that Sonic the Hedgehog stood before her. He was facing away from her, glancing up and down the street. Amy sighed and placed her hand on Sonic's shoulder. He shouted in surprise and tore away from her, turning to face her.

"Amy!" He asked, fear in his voice. Amy stared at him oddly. What in the world was he doing here?

"Sonic, It's 2:30 am! What-" Amy began, when suddenly Sonic ran inside, pulling her along with him. He slammed the door shut behind him, and turned on the light, immediately leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, shuddering and moaning. Amy was surprised. Was something wrong? Amy walked up to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sonic, what's wrong? What are you doing here?" She asked. Sonic looked up at her, and Amy was a little taken back. His expression... it was so fearful, so hopeless, he looked so terrified and vulnerable... so _small_ and helpless... Sonic turned to face her, trembling, and then she saw his arm.

Three deep cuts circled around his forearm, blood oozing from the gashes and dripping to the ground. It pooled in the cuff of his glove and trickled down his arm; blood covered almost all of his left hand. He also had some small cuts on his chest, but those were less severe.

"Oh my god, Sonic, what happened?" She asked. Sonic simply stared at her, giving no response. "_Sonic, are you okay_?" She asked again, worried. Suddenly, the blue hedgehog began to cry and leapt into Amy's arms, scared out of his mind. Amy stared, bewildered down at him as he clung to her, shivering as he struggled to calm himself. Amy returned his embrace, ignoring the blood that fell down her back, (from Sonic's arm) gently stroking his spines and letting him sob into her shoulder. She slowly made her way to the couch, Sonic in her arms, and sat down, letting him lean against her. Amy gently pulled him closer to her, confused by his behavior. His breathing was so ragged and shaky that Amy doubted the hedgehog could speak, his chest pressed against her with each shallow, hurried breath and his heartbeat raced beyond measure. Surprised, she attempted to calm him but the scared little blue hedgehog made no progress towards being normal. Sonic clutched at her, terrified, every so often a tear falling down his cheek. Amy tried to comfort him, drying his tears and holding him, but he was just so- ...so... There just weren't any words for it. He was terrified. Traumatized. She stared down at him both fondly and worriedly; unsure what was the cause of her blue hero's fear. She simply held him as he shivered and moaned, begging for protection. Amy had no idea what was the source of Sonic's distress or what had happened but all she did know was that something was terribly wrong. She gently stroked the quills on Sonic's back and soon wrapped a blanket around him, waiting for him to calm down.

"Sonic... Sonic, what's going on? What happened?" She questioned, nearly shouting in worry, pulling her arms tighter around Sonic. The blue hedgehog looked up at her, sorrow in his eyes, but soon closed his eyes and rested his head on Amy's shoulder, managing to whisper;

"I don't know... it- ...it wants to kill me, Amy, it-... I- I don't know what it is... but... it wants to kill me." He said hoarsely, pulling closer to her. Amy sighed and stroked Sonic's quills, trying to get him to calm down. She had no idea what he was talking about.

"Sonic... Sonic, are you okay? Please, tell me what happened, what attacked you? Was it Eggman?"

"No!" Sonic said, almost alarmed. "It- It's not Eggman, it's ...It's not like anything! It- it freaking burst from the walls, Amy!"

"_What_?" Amy asked, frightened. What was he talking about? Had some monster attacked him? "Sonic, calm down... did you see it?"

"No! I didn't see anything, but-... but claws, and," Sonic realized how stupid he was sounding. "I'm not making this up! And I know I didn't imagine this!" Sonic said, showing Amy his injured arm. Amy nodded.

"I better patch that up." She said, about to leave to get her first-aid kit. Sonic, with his good, not-torn-to-bloody-pieces arm grabbed her hand before she could get two feet away from him.

"Don't leave!" He begged, desperate. Amy stared back at him, silent. For a second she didn't move, surprised by Sonic's actions, but soon she walked back up to him.

"What's wrong?" She asked, sitting down next to Sonic again, taking him up in her arms.

"I- ...I can feel it... everywhere... that thing that's chasing me... except for when you're here. Don't leave me, because then it will come for me." He whispered, clinging to her. At first the pink hedgehog paused. This was** very **odd behavior from Sonic. Maybe this 'monster' thing was serious. Amy sighed, and picked Sonic up, carrying him like a baby. She remained quiet for a moment, giving Sonic some time to calm down.

"Then I promise that I won't leave. But I am going to patch up your arm." She said, carrying Sonic over to the kitchen, where she kept the first-aid kit. Sonic gave a light murmur in response, but was otherwise silent. He, exhausted from a collection of pain and fear, had no intention to argue. He began to relax, and closed his eyes, letting Amy carry him. By the time Amy had placed Sonic in one of the kitchen chairs, gotten the first aid kit and sat down next to him, he was already asleep. Amy laughed lightly to herself and started cleaning Sonic's wounds as he slept peacefully.

She quietly walked over to the sink and let it fill up with warm water, turning to get a wash cloth from the cupboard. She put it in the sink and turned off the water, letting it soak. She then took the gauze pads and bandage-wrap-cloth-stuff-Idunno the formal term for it- and set them on the table, soon afterwards getting the washcloth and beginning to clean Sonic's wounds. She placed his arm on the table, on top of an old towel to prevent blood getting everywhere, and gently moped up the blood around the cuts with the warm washcloth. Her thoughts remained on Sonic the entire time.

He had been so scared. Whatever had happened, it must have been terrible. She sighed and picked up the salve from the kit, opening it and gently rubbing it into the cut, not too deep, but just enough. Amy knew what she was doing. She also massaged it into the rest of his arm. It would help with both the pain and healing. She sighed as she got up and got a glass, filling it with the warm water from the sink. She then sat down next to Sonic again and washed the salve from inside the cut; it shouldn't be left there for more than a few minutes. She wondered. The cuts were very deep... did he need stitches? Amy hadn't done stitches in a very long time. And if she made a mistake, and hurt Sonic, she would never be able to live with that...

She looked over to her blue hero, fast asleep in the chair he sat in. She reached out and stroked her hand across his quills. Sonic mumbled something incoherent in his sleep, and his ear twitched lightly, but otherwise gave no response. She wondered... Why had he run to her? Of all people, why to her? Sonic had never acted like he would run to anyone. Least of all jump into their arms, desperate for protection. He must have gone through something awful. She could only imagine what had happened... she shook the thoughts out of her head, and returned to her work on Sonic's arm, deciding that stitches were necessary. She was very lucky that the first-aid kit had a surgical needle and thread for stitches.

When she was done, (she had actually done a better job than expected.) she placed the gauze pads over the cuts, and wrapped Sonic's arm in the cloth bandage. She then formed it into a makeshift sling and tied it around his shoulder; he shouldn't be moving his arm yet. She then picked up the washcloth and gently started cleaning the cuts around Sonic's chest. They weren't very severe and were of mild concern but they probably should have some sort of bandage. She wrapped the cloth bandage left over from his arm around his chest and tied it, hoping that she would be able to get more bandages tomorrow. She then washed the blood from her hands, all the while keeping a close eye on Sonic.

Afterwards, She again picked up Sonic and carried him back to the couch, gently lying him down. She was about to leave, when she remembered what he said... She did believe that he was attacked, she just found it a little hard to believe that it was some clawed monster that could burst from the walls. Maybe it had just been a bad dream? She still wasn't entirely sure what had happened. All she knew was that Sonic was scared. She had never seen him act like that before. He just seemed so weak and helpless. She prayed that he was okay, and that whatever had attacked him was not going to come after him again. After all, Amy had no idea what it was, and then how would she protect him from it? Sonic hadn't said much about what had happened before he fell asleep. But, that didn't matter. He could tell her more when he woke up. She turned to Sonic, and stared at him for a moment. Again, he looked so delicate and helpless... She had promised to stay with him, so she would. She picked up another blanket and lay down next to Sonic; her arm draped over his side, and put the blanket on top of him. She then gave him a kiss on the cheek, and wrapped him up in her arms.

"I'll keep ya safe, Sonic. I promise."

Meanwhile, just outside, a pair of red eyes watched the two hedgehogs. A maniacal laugh echoed quietly in the beast's throat.

_"You can't hide behind her forever, my prey..."

* * *

_

YAY! I DON'T SUCK AT WRITING! This could possibly be the BEST stuff I've written since yesterday afternoon where I wrote the first chapter but then decided it was the second chapter because then it would be more dramatic and effective. YAY! So... did I do well? I spent nearly a WEEK revising it... please say I did kind of good? Well, I THINK THAT I DID GOOD!

"What are you talking about! This doesn't make any sense!" Protested Shadow.

"Oh contraire, my friend, It will make PERFECT SENSE! ...Well, it will by next chapter."

"And why is that?"

"We get to find out what happened to Sonic, and why he's being so psychotic!"

"YAY!" Shouted the governor of Wisconsin. Or, possibly, the governor of Connecticut could have. Take your pick.

Ooh! Was it scary? ...Please say it didn't suck. I know it probably did, but... just in case...


	2. erm, It's casper gone bad?

Okay, this is explaining what happened to Sonic. Be happy. This is like a prequel chapter. Don't ya just love them?

* * *

Sonic ran as fast as he could through the darkness, but it seemed as if there was no end to it. It was so thick and oppressive that he could almost feel it mob around his limbs; it was starting to get hard to move through, but Sonic knew he mustn't stop, he just couldn't, otherwise it would catch him...

Sonic wasn't entirely sure what was chasing him; the darkness was too viscous to see through. But he could feel that something was behind him, something that hated him, something that wanted to destroy him... He just had to keep running and hope that it ended somewhere, hope that there was light somewhere. He tried to keep running, but it had been so long and not once had Sonic been able to stop... His limbs began to tire and the icy blackness bit into him like knives. He felt less like he was running and more like the ground was rushing to meet his foot, it was almost like falling but Sonic couldn't really call it that because he was standing up.

Suddenly, it got darker. Sonic had no idea how it could have, the dream had already been so forebodingly light bear, but already a sickening pitch black flooded around him. Now it was even thicker, Sonic could feel himself slowing down. Without warning, the evil presence advanced on him, he could feel it surrounding him and he hated it. He tried to run faster, but only succeeded in tripping and falling to the ground. Sonic looked around, trying to see his attacker, when he heard a low growl and a sharp pain bit into his chest. Sonic tried to scream but it was muffled by the thickness of the dark around him; swallowed up by the ebony tomb. It was getting to hard to breathe, to hard to move. Sonic struggled but soon the air was almost too thick to inhale; he coughed and sputtered to no avail, when suddenly he heard another low growl and looked around, alarmed. What he saw made him freeze.

Two red eyes glared viciously at him from a distance, surrounded by a smoldering blackness. He couldn't see what it was. Sonic tried to back away, when suddenly the red eyes lunged at him.

Sonic bolted upright and screamed, sweat beading down his face. When his scream died away in the cold night, Sonic froze, not daring to move. He could breathe again, he realized, as he gasped for air like a catfish. (Some catfish can crawl on land and they gasp for air and stuff and it's fun to watch. I poke them with sticks!) He didn't dare to open his eyes; afraid he would see the darkness again, but...

Sonic opened his eyes a little and looked around. He sighed heavily when he realized he was back in his room. It had all been a bad dream. Nothing more, just a dream. He shivered. His window was open, and he was drenched with sweat, the covers clung to his skin as his chest heaved with each breath. A silver square of harsh moonlight lit up the room, it was a full moon tonight and it was radiant. But that didn't change the fact that sonic felt horrible. His mouth was dry and his heart pounded relentlessly, he was afraid it would burst from his chest if it didn't slow down. He was hot and sweaty, even if the window was open, which let a cold draft into the room. Sonic again sighed and collapsed onto his back, staring at the ceiling. The cold had been from the window, the thick darkness that mobbed around his limbs must have been the covers, and maybe he had rolled into the pillow during his sleep, so he couldn't breathe.

Sonic sat up and threw the covers aside, walking across the floor and to the window. He closed it, stopping the draft and sighed, leaning into the wall. He was just glad that none of that had been real. He looked out the window, and onto the street below. No cars were outside, and the whole road seemed rather empty; not a soul walked the concrete of the barren sidewalks. He again sighed to himself. He kind of liked it, that feeling that you're the only person there. Then again there were times when he didn't like it. In reality it all depended on the situation. He sighed. He couldn't go back to sleep yet. He was too shaken up by that awful dream. He sighed, stretched, and turned around, heading for the kitchen.

Sonic opened the door to the hallway and stepped out, reaching blindly for the light switch he knew was on the wall to his left. After a moment, he found it, and was about to turn the lights on, when he realized... the switch was already in the 'on' position. Perplexed, he switched it on and off a few times, when nothing happened. He shrugged. Maybe he had left the lights on by mistake and the bulb had burnt out. He was about to walk down the hall to go get a spare bulb from under the kitchen sink, when the lights switched on. Sonic stopped, and looked around.

_Weird..._ he thought to himself, walking down the hall. Sure, it was weird, but Sonic wasn't too worried by it. If he was the kind of person who thought it was the end of the world every time something weird happened, he would be dead by now. He turned to his left and entered the kitchen, opening the cupboard. He searched through the crowded array of cans and boxes, until he came upon the hot chocolate mix. It was just the thing for nightmares. Some people meditated, some people talked to overpriced psychiatrists, but for Sonic, it was hot chocolate to the rescue! It had been for as long as he remembered. He set it on the counter, got out the milk from the refrigerator, (along with a glass from the cupboard) and in a few moments, it was ready to be put in the microwave. He set the timer for a minute and started to walk to the living room, which was right of the hall, when he stepped on something. He stopped and looked under his foot, and was startled to see a photograph.

_What the heck is this doing down here?_ Thought Sonic, picking it up. He looked at it. It was the picture Tails had taken of everyone after the 'island incident' (See "Legacy Of The Eight Dragons") There was everyone. He and Amy in the bottom-right hand corner, smiling happily. Fliara (fan-character- don't worry, you'll know who she is later) up in a tree on the left-hand side. Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow and Tails in the middle and Alexi (another fan character, it goes for here too, her identity isn't important right now) just behind them, not paying attention. It was very rare that anyone got a photograph of Alexi. She hated getting her picture taken. Tails had barely escaped by blaming Shadow of the photograph. Sonic laughed to himself.

But still, this should have been on the shelf. _Maybe the picture fell? _Sonic wondered, walking into the living room and looking to the shelf, when he gasped. The entire shelf (it was one of those wall-ones with some cabinets and space for a TV. and stuff) had fallen on its side; the items scattered on the floor. But something was wrong. All of the items were standing up. None of them were broken. And none of them were under the shelf. It looked like they had been set there by hand before the shelf itself fell over. And more importantly, _Why hadn't Sonic heard it fall?_ He couldn't have slept through it; Sonic was an astoundingly light sleeper. He stared at it, bewildered. He walked over and knelt next to the shelf, attempting to upright it again. He managed to push it back up against the wall, but the TV. Was still on the ground. Sonic lifted up the TV, (it was a very small one) and put it back on the shelf, looking around at the items strewn through the room. It just didn't make any sense, the way the items had fallen. They couldn't have fallen with the shelf, why would they be standing up? It... it just didn't make any sense. He was still wondering what was going on, when he heard the timer beep. Sonic, Trying to assure himself that the shelf had simply fallen over, he walked into the kitchen and got the hot chocolate out of the microwave.

He sat down at the table, holding the glass in a shaky hand. He tried to assure himself that it was nothing, but... Sonic took a sip of the hot chocolate, relieved as the warmth seeped into his throat. A lot of weird stuff had happened for just one night. Sonic tried to tell himself he wasn't worried, but what if there _was_ something going on here? He shook his head, and took another sip of the hot chocolate. He was overreacting. The shelf had simply fallen over. End of story. He was just starting to calm down, when suddenly he heard an odd sound, like footsteps, from the next story up. Normally this would be okay if it wasn't for one little fact:

The building Sonic lived in didn't _have_ another story.

Suddenly, the clock on the wall stopped ticking. He looked over at it. It's hands read 2:00. That was the last thing Sonic saw before the lights went out.

Sonic jumped to his feet, muttering curses. The bulb must have gone out again. Sonic instantly knew that couldn't be true when he realized that the hallway and kitchen had different lights. They couldn't have both burnt out, could they?

...And certainly they couldn't have burnt out at the same time.

Suddenly, Sonic heard footsteps again, but this time, they sounded like they were just in the hall. Sonic backed against the wall, his hand searching for the light switch. For a second he fumbled over it, as the footsteps grew nearer, hurried, until they sounded like they were right on top of him, when he found it, and turned on the lights, relieved when it worked. For a second Sonic shut his eyes, afraid of what he might see. The footsteps had stopped right in front of him. He slowly opened an eye to see that nothing was there. Sonic gave a shuddering sigh and sat down. He had to calm down. He must be really tired or something, he was imagining things. He took the hot chocolate glass in his hand, when he felt something crawl over his hand. Sonic's eyes snapped open and he dropped the glass to the ground, seeing that it now crawled with worms and bugs. Sonic brushed the spider off of his hand, and took a step back in fear and bewilderment. He heard faint maniacal laughter echo down the halls, and again he heard the footsteps, this time going away from him, then, he heard the door to his room open.

Sonic froze where he was standing. He shook the fear out of his head, and glared at the hall. This had to stop. Whoever this prankster was, Sonic was going to make sure he paid dearly. It wasn't funny. He walked down the hall, trying to keep a calm demeanor, and stopped in front of the door to his room. It was open slightly. Sonic walked in, turning on the light, and looking around. He didn't see anyone. He took a few steps into the room, when suddenly the door slammed shut and the lights went off.

Suddenly Sonic heard a loud crash from behind him, like an explosion. He spun around, accidentally smashing his elbow against the wall. He cried out, muttering curses as he looked around the room. It was far too dark; Sonic couldn't see a thing.

"Show yourself!" He demanded, cradling his injured arm. He backed into the wall, glancing around. Suddenly, Sonic felt something brush across his face. He spun around, looking everywhere for a sign of the intruder. This was serious. Something was wrong. Nothing normal could be doing this. It was too dark for the little blue hedgehog to see anything. He heard scuttling footsteps across the ceiling. Sonic looked up; but there was nothing there. He panicked as he backed further into the wall, pressing against it. Sonic swallowed nervously, looking at the ceiling. Silence fell upon the room. Sonic hated it. It made his breathing sound so loud... He pressed into the wall, glancing about nervously... what was going on, what was he going to d-

Sonic heard a crash as a clawed hand burst from the wall and seized Sonic's arm.

"What the crap!" Sonic cried out in surprise and tried to pull away, but the claws dug into his flesh. Sonic screamed in agony as the claw met the bone and blood oozed from the wound. Another set of claws seized Sonic around the waist and pinned him to the wall. Sonic screamed and tried to pull away but was soon silenced as a voice met his ears.

"_...You are a threat..."_ A hoarse growl whispered through the room. Sonic desperately tried to pull away, still looking around for the source of the voice.

"_...So you must DIE!" _

Sonic could feel the claws of the other hand start to bite into his chest. But more than pain seeped from those wounds.

It was not unlike death was spreading through his body, and indescribable cold crawled trough him... Sonic tried to scream but he just couldn't manage it... Sonic struggled but soon found he didn't have the energy for it. He panicked, suddenly feeling as if his very soul was being ripped out of him...

In sheer desperation, he gave a final tug and managed to rip free. He ran to the door and smashed it down, running down the hall. Sonic could hear footsteps behind him but did not dare look. He ran to the front door, opened it, and ran into the night, not daring to stop.

Sonic's heart pounded in his chest as he raced down the street, trying to outrun his pursuers, whatever they were. Sonic had no idea what was going on, it didn't make any sense... no sense at all... sheer terror pulsed through his veins. Sonic did not understand how he could be running, in truth his mind was trying to shut down in reaction to that shock... it was not unlike falling, Sonic realized, only...

Sonic nearly stopped running

...He couldn't call it that because he was standing up.

Being able to relate to his nightmare gave him no comfort. He slowed down a little. He couldn't run forever. He needed help! He needed somewhere where he would be safe. Somewhere where he could find out what was wrong with him, what was following him... he stopped as he reached his destination, and ran to the front door. He looked around, searching for any sign of his pursuers. To his relief, he didn't see anything. He turned to the door, and pounded his fist on it, screaming for help.

"Amy! Amy! Are you there?" Sonic begged, beating his fist on the door. He could only pray that she woke up. He looked behind him, and around him, but didn't see anything. Waves of fear crushed him at every second, his pulse pounding in his ears.

_" ...You can't run."_ A hoarse voice echoed through the street. _" From something that's everywhere..."_

Sonic turned around, looking up and down the street, panicking, trying to spot whatever was following him. He backed away from the street, searching the dark alleyways for a trace of the monster, when suddenly a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. Sonic screamed and tore form it's grasp, turning around to see...

It was scary, no? I hope that it was scary. I tried. I_ really_ did. I wanted to write this in 1st-person, but-... but... I HAVE THE TRAGIC TRANS-VISUAL-SCRIPT-PHOBIA! Or... I think that's how you say it... yeah, I can't write in 1st person worth badger livers and koala feathers. So I didn't. BUT PLEASE SAY IT WAS KIND OF SCARY! And I know that I put the chapters out of order. I did it on purpose, because I thought it would be more effective and stuff. If it's a problem, please tell me. But I kind of like it.

So now you know what happened to Sonic.

And why did Sonic run to Amy? Well, here are the following reasons:

1. She was closest.  
2. At the time, Sonic had impaired judgment. Hey, let's face it, he was never a good thinker to begin with and after getting a scare like that whom wouldn't be a little messed up?  
3. Amy had medical experience and was the best one to treat his arm.  
4. Amy loved him and would probably give him a hug. He needed a hug.  
5. He didn't know it but secretly Amy was the only thing that could protect him from those monsters for now, for reasons I'll explain later. He had a gut instinct that told him 'run for Amy!' and turns out his organs were right. YAY! WAY TO GO FOR ORGANS!

And expect chapter three very soon. It's done... sort of, but I must revise it. I spenta_very_ long timerevising these chapters, and they ROCK! I'm sorry if you thought they sucked, but I am proud of them. It's my VERY first horror story and I am happy. But... I kind of think that I messed up the terror parts... I don't think they're very good. Oh well.


	3. Calm 'fore the storm, without the storm

I'm sorry that all of my stories have been disappearing lately, but I officially have a stalker-reporter. They're going to try and get rid of every literary work I post. I hope that this one is satisfactory enough not to get deleted. Anyway, this is chapter three. It's kind of pointless, I just want to get this part over with, but then we finally get to learn some more about the evil-monster-ghost-thingy that attacked Sonic. Sounds fun, no? Expect chapter four in just a few days, and expect it to be long. And to all reviewers, thank you for your time, and I hope that this chapter isn't as much of a let-down as I expect it to be.

* * *

Amy's eyes flickered open as the gentle light of dawn stirred her from her sleep. She sat up, looking at the clock on the wall. It was seven, so she and Sonic had gotten about 4 hours of sleep since he showed up. She stretched, and yawned, looking down at the blue hedgehog. He was still fast asleep. She was happy for him. After all, whatever had happened to him, he must have needed a good night's sleep. She leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead, but then stood up from the couch and headed for the kitchen. Sonic would be hungry when he woke up and Amy wasn't going to let him starve. 

She knew how worried Sonic had been about being alone, but it was so light out already. And besides, she could see him from the kitchen. But before she started cooking anything, she picked up the phone and walked back into the living room, sitting on the couch, next to where Sonic lay. She was going to call Tails and the others and tell them to come by, if something was attacking Sonic she figured everyone would want to know about it.

She dialed up Tails and looked over at Sonic. He shivered lightly, despite the blanket draped over his trembling body. Amy gently tucked the quilt around his neck, trying not to wake him. As the phone rang, she just hoped that Tails would be up. The odds were that he would be awake by now, knowing that Fliara had recently decided to hang around his place, and she was up by 4:30. _Every day_. And she liked everyone else to wake up at that time too. She didn't understand that not everyone found an hour of ti-chi and sword practice a day appealing. But if Tails _had_ managed to find a way to sleep through Fliara's attempts to wake up the entire continent, then the odds were that Fliara would answer the phone.

But Fliara didn't know what a phone was, so the odd were she would attack it. What would _you_ do if something you had never seen before started making a ringing noise at you?

Finally someone picked up the phone, and Amy was relieved to hear Tails' voice at the other end.

"Who is it?" Asked Tails. He sounded tired

"It's Amy." She answered. "Sorry if I woke you up, Tails, but it's important."

"Okay, okay. So, what's up? It's kind of early." Tails moaned groggily. Amy laughed.

"Not for Fliara." Amy said. Tails moaned again.

"I don't think that dragon ever sleeps." Said the fox. "So, is there a problem? I don't know why else that you'd call this early."

"Sort of, but I think it'll be okay." She said. "I've got a little blue hedgehog over here that could probably use a visit form his best friend."

"Sonic's over there? Why?"

"I don't know for sure myself. He ran over here at 2:30. He kept saying that something had attacked him. His left arm was all torn up, Tails. He looked terrible." She said. "He's not feeling well, you know, emotionally."

"Whoa. Is he okay?"

"A little shaken up, but otherwise he'll be all right. He was scared as hell, though. Looked like he saw a ghost... or worse!" Amy said. She looked over at her blue hero, who was sleeping quietly and contentedly. She sighed fondly and gently rubbed Sonic's back. The little blue hedgehog smiled in his sleep.

"What's worse than a ghost?" Asked Tails.

"A POLTERGEIST!" Amy could hear Fliara shout in the background. She also heard Tails sigh in annoyance.

"Forget it. So, should we come over there?" The fox asked. Amy stood up and started walking to the kitchen.

"Yeah, that's why I called. Fliara's an expert at this weird stuph and Sonic said he was attacked by some... monster or something." Amy turned to look at Sonic. He seemed like he was comfortable enough.

"Wow. It wasn't Eggman?"

"No." Amy answered. There was a brief pause as Tails thought over what could have possibly attacked his best friend. Amy was sure that a thousand enimies came to mind, but had no clue as to what Tails' conclusion could possibly be.

"You sure he's okay?"

"He looks pretty happy from here." Answered Amy, smiling at the fact that Sonic was basking in comfort that _she_ had provided. It felt good, to take care of him like this.

"Is he awake?"

"Nope, sleeping like a baby. Did you want to talk to him or something?" Amy asked, switching the phone to her other hand.

"No. I can ask him later." Tails replied.

"Trust me Tails, I know no more than you do." She admitted, pacing around the kitchen. "Oh, and if you could get the others to come, that would be great. Knuckles is supposed to know something about 'the mysterious energies of the planet'."

* * *

"Hippy!" Shouted Draik, shaking a threatening fist at knuckles.

* * *

"And everyone else should know what's going on as well."

"Why would Shadow and Alexi want to come?" The little kitsune questioned. He did make a point. Both Shadow and Alexi did not like to do anything 'cooperative'. Shadow had a better outlook on it than Alexi did, but it was still likely that neither of them would want to come. Amy thought for a moment.

"I'm cooking breakfast!" She exclaimed happily. Tails laughed.

"Well, we'll be over there as fast as we can." Tails said. "And I'll tell Fliara to bring her tarot cards and stuff."

"Great! Bye, Tails!" Amy said, hanging up. Well, it was set. Everyone was coming. Now all she had to do was make breakfast.

She got some eggs out of the refrigerator and set to work. She assumed Sonic was still too scared to be picky so she just cooked them the way she always did: scrambled. And as for the others, Amy knew that Fliara had already eaten and Alexi _didn't_ eat and everyone else would probably be too dignified to whine about food so who cared? Besides, everyone likes scrambled eggs.

After getting those going, she was about to start the pancake mix, when she heard the doorbell ring.

_That was fast_ she thought, but of course it would be because Tails was a pretty fast fox. She walked over and opened the wooden door. Sure enough, there stood Tails, looking as happy as ever.

"'Came as fast as I could! Fliara's getting Knuckles and Rouge, and then they're going to find Shadow on their way here. And, Shadow always seems to know where Alexi is, so go figure!" Tails explained, setting a backpack on the ground next to the door. "Fliara had me bring her stuff here, though. So, where's Sonic?" Tails asked.

"He's over there." Amy said, gesturing to the couch. "He's still asleep. Please don't wake him up yet." She requested, turning to go back to the kitchen.

"You've got blood on your back." Pointed out Tails, surprised. Amy paused to look at him, then sighed. Of course she did. Sonic's blood was still there from yesterday, when he had clung to her.

"It's not mine. Sonic's arm was bloody, and when he hugged me,"

"He hugged you? ...He must have been really scared."

"It surprised me as much as it did you, Tails. He was _crying_." Amy looked over at Sonic. "I'm worried that whatever attacked him will come back. And he's already so... just look at his arm, Tails."

Tails walked up to Sonic and took a look at the bandages, which, despite the stitches, were still saturated in blood. Tails shook his head.

"That _is _bad." The little yellow fox said. "Any idea what did that to him?"

"No. He didn't say." She said. "He fell asleep almost right after he got here. He was terrified, Tails. I'm actually afraid that something really serious happened to him." Amy said, stirring up the pancake batter.

"Well, he looks fine now. I see that you took exceptional care of him."

"How could I not, Tails?" Amy asked. She took the scrambled eggs off of the burner. "He just looked so helpless... I had to make sure he was okay." She then turned and handed the batter to the yellow fox, who looked at it quizzically. "Could you stir that, please?" She requested, before turning back to the eggs. Tails sighed, but agreed and slowly drew the wooden spoon through the creamy tan mixture.

"I just hope you didn't coddle him too much. Can't let that hedgehog get any more of a bloated head than he has now. There might not be enough room for the rest of the egomaniacs around here." Tails joked, stirring the batter. He was obviously trying to get the lumps out, but it wasn't going as well as he would have planned. Amy laughed.

"Trust me, Tails, Sonic needed every bit of attention that I gave him. He was terrified."

After a while, Amy had breakfast ready and it had been about 15 min since Tails arrived. Amy set the food on the table but left it there and walked back to the living room, where Tails sat in the chair next to the couch. Amy sat next to Sonic, and again rubbed the blue hedgehog's back, her fingers running through his quills. She knew that it made him feel better.

"So, Is he _ever_ going to wake up?" Asked Tails, absent-mindedly flipping through Fliara's tarot cards. He set each one on the table as he looked at it. A lot of them had very elaborate artwork. The one for 'Fire', for example, had an elaborate, ink drawing of a bird made entirely of flame, holly branches gripped in its fiery claw. Amy didn't know what relation birds and holly had to fire, but she figured that kind of information was left to Fliara. Tails picked out a certain one. "Wow, this one's elaborate." Tails said sarcastically as he held it up. It was titled 'Fear'. It was blank.

"I wonder why?" Amy asked, taking it in her hand.

"I'm the wrong person to ask." Said Tails. A few seconds after he said that, though, Sonic started to wake up...

* * *

Sonic thought he heard Amy's voice, so, that woke him up soon enough. After all, who could she be talking to? He opened his eyes, partially confused. The last thing he remembered was lying in Amy's arms. Now where was he? He looked around and saw Amy sitting next to him, soon afterward seeing Tails sat on the chair next to the couch. He moaned groggily, still exhausted, but sat up, and found that he was immediately wrapped up in Amy's arms. Sonic was at first surprised but after remembering the terror of yesterday gladly cuddled further into her arms, perfectly content. 

"Hey... good morning, Sonic..." Amy said quietly. Sonic rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked up at her. For a second he didn't move but then he turned to Tails and asked.

"What's Tails doing here?" Questioned the blue hedgehog, but not in a spiteful way. He smiled at the sight of his best friend, and decided to sit upright instead of leaning into Amy for support. He still remained in Amy's arms, though. He doubted if he could do otherwise. He clung tightly to her, still scared. And odd look from Tails made Sonic think over his actions.

Sonic realized how much his recent behavior was contradictory to the common way he acted. Oddly, Sonic had no regrets. The fear... it had just eaten him from the inside out. It hung over him, like an oppressive storm cloud, just threatening to strike with thunder and rain. Sonic could actually feel the fear threatening to take hold of him again. And he hated it. He knew that he was being weak, he knew that he was clinging to the very girl he had spent so much time running away from, but Sonic did not care, for one very important reason; he was safe.

For some reason, Sonic knew that Amy kept him safe. He felt so much better when she was near, when he was in her arms... It was the one place Sonic almost knew for certain that the beast pursuing him couldn't follow. And he felt so much worse when she was gone. And even if it wasn't 'heroic' of him to cling to her, he felt like the monster would come and swallow him up if he didn't. It was childish, but it brought Sonic so much comfort that he ignored the oddities of it.

Sonic's train of thought was broken when Tails answered his question.

"Oh, Amy called and asked us to come." Answered Tails, still fingering through the tarot cards. "Fliara and the others are on their way."

At the mention of the dragon, Sonic's smile faded, and he moaned piteously.

"Fliara..." pouted Sonic, pressing closer to Amy. The hedgehog soon turned and buried his face into her shoulder. "She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you; she just wants to be better than you are." Said tails. "There's a big difference." Sonic's response was more pouting.

"Aww, come on, Sonic, cheer up a little." Said Amy. "Fliara's gonna help. She knows a lot about these things. And, after all, you're safe now." She said. Sonic nodded, but still clung to Amy quietly. The girl responded by gently petting Sonic's quills. All in all, Sonic was feeling much better.

He was happy.

Sure, he was still scared, he could tell that the monster that attacked him was still out there, but... well... he was happy none the less.

"Are you hungry?" Asked Amy, running her fingers through Sonic's quills. Sonic nodded, but panicked as Amy stood up and left him sitting on the couch. He quickly stood up and clung to her, with a look on his face as if he was never going to let go. It was then that Tails realized that Sonic was _scared_. _Terrified_. It was obvious that Sonic needed some time to rest. Something serious had happened. Amy smiled and returned Sonic's embrace, but then pushed him back on the couch. Sonic fought back, but soon was silenced when Amy held a finger to his lips. "I'll just be gone for a second, Sonic. Tails is here; you'll be okay." Amy said. At first it looked like Sonic was going to cry but finally he gave a solemn nod and let go of Amy's arm. She gave him a kiss on the forehead and left to get the food. "Anything you want in particular?" Amy asked. Sonic thought about it, and answered with a small grin.

"If it weren't too much trouble... hot chocolate would be great."

* * *

BLARG! IT'S SO BORING I COULD EXPLODE! But it does hold some valuable information. Like... I dunno... people... are... coming. I don't know. Basically this chapter was just to get this part over with. Right after this I swear the scary stuph will start up again. I promise on my liver. You heard me right. If it doesn't get even the least bit scarier by next chapter, you can have my liver. And I'm sorry that this chapter is so short and not good. I just can't write very well right now. Hopefully next chapter will be longer, and better. But I'm happy to say I finished my make-up work on the exams so that means... well, it means I'll have homework now. Yippee-Skippy. Oh, and by the way, Drake is one of my friends, and his classic insult is "Hippy!" so that's why it said that. Yeah. Go home now. Or review. Please. 

Oh, and I almost forgot... Ugh... sorry I didn't do this sooner. In this fic, Sonic and Amy are both 17-ish. Sort of. Sort of 17-ish. I should have pointed that out sooner. And I'm sorry that I didn't update this yesterday like I was supposed to. It still had some bugs to work out, and besides, I was gone all day. There might be a small break in the chapters as I struggle through the dramatic attack scene in chapter four. But, rest assured, it will one day reach the web. Like in a week or so.


	4. tofu tarot terror

...HEAD-EXPLODING LEVELS OF CORNY-NESS!

It's fun to stay at the- YMCA! It's fun to stay at the- YMCA... ...Well, considering that has nothing to do with the blender, ...I mean story... I should have started this chapter off with a song like purity or something because this chapter has nothing to do with the YMCA or fun or happiness. And purity is about dying! ...In a way. So, ...I worked for a long time on this crap, so you people better enjoy it! And where are you, Ri2? I miss you and your agonizing reviews that point out every single one of the thousands of plot flaws! Uhh, ...I mean... I... Forget I said anything, okay? Deal.

* * *

Sonic sat on the couch with Amy, sipping his hot chocolate and every so often taking a bite of his breakfast. In all truth he wasn't very hungry, but Amy insisted that he eat. The small, blue hero talked with Amy and Tails a little, surprised that they hadn't asked about the attack yet. Sonic couldn't complain, though. He shivered and pressed into Amy's arms, trying to drive the bitter memories of yesterday out of his head as he clung to her. He had the weirdest... _safe_ feeling, whenever she held him like this, as if he felt like nothing could hurt him. It just felt so good in comparison to the terror of last night that Sonic found he couldn't let go of her. Sonic knew that once she let go of him, terrible, cold fear would creep back up on him. He wasn't ready for that yet.

A knock was heard on the door, and Sonic turned to see Tails stand up and open it, the rusty hinges creaking in protest at the strain. Fliara and the others were standing outside. Fliara stood in the doorway, somehow brightening up the room with her cheery disposition.

Warning, here comes a long boring character description, and it won't make any sense if you don't read it. Skip it if you must, but I warned you. -

Fliara was a rather positive and optimistic person, but did not believe in carrying that trait to the point of 'overconfident', an insult she bestowed upon Sonic daily. She knew her limits, and pushed them every day, but knew when a task was too big. She was a perfectionist, and tried to give more than 100 24/7. She had been called many things in her life: overachiever, dreamer, naive; sometimes Fliara had to agree with them. Often, she would judge people too fast. Sometimes, she would expect herself to be right. And she would always 'overachieve' so to speak, constantly trying to set goals just beyond the edge of possible, trying again to raise her limits and become stronger.

Why did Fliara do all of this? Like I said before, Fliara had been called many things in her life, but never a hero. And that made Fliara ...sad. (Which was a rarely used word by the dragon) She had trained since she was a hatchling growing up with her 'big brother' on Angel Island to be a hero, and when it came to melee combat, she could beat Sonic any day. She could out-fly him, outwit him and overpower him if she tried hard enough. But what confused Fliara was that even when She finally accomplished her life-long dream of defeating Sonic and becoming the world's strongest hero, she was still not addressed by that title. Fliara had always thought that courage, valor, strength, humility and wisdom made a good hero, but Fliara had all of those things, to some extent more than Sonic, and yet he was a hero and Fliara wasn't. It made the dragon sad and she to this day doesn't understand, and takes it out on Sonic, who is once again, her arch-nemeses. She defeats him in any way she can every time she can, to try and prove to the world that she can be a hero too.

The sleek red dragon walked through the door, long, scaly tail dragging behind her. The knife-sharp tail spade left small marks in the softwood of the floor as it swished back and forth. (This happened often so all friends of Fliara were accustom to having small marks in their wooden flooring) Her bright orange hair swayed lightly in the breeze from outside, her bangs hanging in front of her eyes as they strayed from the ponytail the rest of her hair was tied into. The garnet scales covering her hide shone brilliantly in the summer sun, along with her steak knife claw fingers and long fangs. (Fliara always looked better on sunny days.) Her giganticaly out-of-proportion wings were folded up neatly behind her, twitching at the effort of curling up so tightly. When stretched out to their full potential, her wings probably wouldn't have fit in Amy's house. Her outfit consisted of loose, desert-style pants (see some desert movie and you'll understand. Ever seen Aladdin? The type of clothes they wear in that movie? Bingo!) And a bright yellow shirt with no sleeves and one shoulder, it ended about the same place as her sternum, so it didn't cover her scaly stomach. Other than being snake-like thin, the dragon had almost no figure and didn't seem to be concerned by it. She was, by the way, only twelve, and Fliara just wasn't the type of person concerned with her looks. She wore no shoes, so her red, scaly feet and long, steak knife toes were bare to the wooden floor. Fliara had showed up during the first few events of Legacy of the Eight Dragons, and had grudgingly stuck around since. She had quickly befriended Tails and Big as her closest companions; however, her hate for Sonic had only grown.

Following her were knuckles, Rouge, and Shadow, who you all know. (Hopefully) Behind them stepped Alexi, covered entirely with a black cloak, the hood over her head so she couldn't be seen or exposed to the (in her opinion) 'awful' sun. As soon as she walked through the door, however, she closed it behind her and took off the depressingly dark robe.

Alexi the snow leopard was not the most modest of people and she didn't really care. Her outfit was made entirely of black, form-fitting leather, and consisted of knee-high boots, gloves that reached her elbow, and what looked like a one-piece swimming suit with an "intense" (in Shadow's opinion- I know I'm copying form my other story, but I'm lazy, so who cares?) V-neck. He light blue fur was splotched with darker blue spots, arranged un-orderly around her furry hide. Her muzzle had light gray fur, with fringe around the cheeks, not unlike Tails, or Big, but her hair was a frighteningly deep shade of black. It fell, unkempt and scraggly, past her waist, a few hairs falling over her viridian eyes, which seemed sharp and oppressive. Unjust and reasonless cruelty could be seen in her heart. Her ears, however, were the only normal things about her, exception being that the right one had a chunk out of it. No one had asked how it happened, but they suspected it to be something quite significant; Alexi could not be cut. She would "teleport" out of the way of any skin-piercing or fatal blow. She couldn't control it. Unlike Fliara, Alexi's figure could be summarized as... Well, to put it bluntly, appealing. Alexi hated herself for that and many reasons. She was 79, but didn't look any older than Shadow (and never would) and was trying to end her life before she reached 80. It wasn't working too well. The whole 'invincible' thing can be a real pain when you're suicidal.

Shadow, for as long as he had known Alexi, (and been able to remember it) felt a sense of duty towards the blue leopard. Her damned existence was partially his fault. Over the recent events, many believed that the sense of duty had evolved into affection, but nobody had proof of such a thing and Shadow was wiser than that. Alexi could never return feelings of love. Reason one: she just didn't give a... erm... mushroom. Perhaps she meant more to the black hedgehog and perhaps not but that isn't important right now.

(Sincere apologies, I know how _boring_ that must have been, but I'm trying to introduce them. And again, sorry for how boring the explanation to how boring it was was. And apologies for this one that explains the boringness of the explanation explaining the boringness of the boringness of the explanation. And so on. I don't know.)

Alexi immediately walked over to a shadowy part of the hall and leaned against the green wallpaper, her eyes turned towards the rest of the visitors. Shadow sat on the chair closest to the hall, so he could talk to Alexi. The two often found they could agree on things, even if Shadow was occasionally a little disturbed by what she said. Fliara sat cross-legged on the floor, taking her backpack from the wall and setting out some items. Rouge and Knuckles pulled chairs from the kitchen and soon the group into a lengthy discussion concerning Sonic and his incredulously OOC-ness. Which, by the way, isn't a word. My spell checker will surely kill me in my sleep with a can of frozen peas and a spoon.

"So, any clue what happened to him?" Asked Fliara, sorting through her tarot-cards. Amy shrugged.

"He hasn't really said yet." Amy said. Sonic didn't like it, the way they talked about him as if he wasn't there.

"Well, I'll need to know that before I do anything else." Fliara said, trying to sustain from glaring at the blue hedgehog. "So, Sonic, you gonna tell us what happened or what?" Fliara asked.

Sonic looked around the room. He sighed heavily, knowing that he would have to tell them sooner or later. He just didn't want to relive what had happened... Sonic sighed, and took another sip of his hot chocolate.

"Well... It all started when I had this nightmare, and... well... things j-just got worse and worse." Sonic said, pressing into Amy. The pink hedgehog gave him a reassuring hug. Sonic sighed, and continued with his story. You already know what happened. And I don't feel like typing up an explaining-part to explain. If it's really that important, read chapter two again. I know that I'm being lazy. Go ahead. Sue me. I'm in grade school, and I don't have any money to give. So you won't get anything. Ha!

By the end of Sonic's tale, the room was deathly silent, until Knuckles gave a whistle.

"That IS creepy! It's no wonder you're clinging to Amy like a leech." The red echidna chuckled. Sonic glared irately but made no move to release his grip on Amy.

"Guys, take it easy on him... " Amy scolded, putting a defensive arm around Sonic. The 'blue blur", or what was left of him, cuddled into Amy, all the while staring angrily at Knuckles.

"What he said happened... Gosh, it must have been even worse in person." Rouge commented, pity in her voice. "If that happened to me, I'd be clinging to _something_ or other like a leech. I'd be downright terrified!"

"If a ghost ever attacks you, you're entirely welcome to cling to _me."_ Joked knuckles. Rouge responded by promptly kicking him in the face. Knuckles, after standing up, a boot-print on his head, commented "I guess I deserved that." Rouge nodded in response but otherwise gave knuckles no more angry looks. He would remember the lesson when people stared at him for having a boot-shaped bruise on his face for the next week. Fliara, who hadn't been paying the least of attention to what her older brother said, began going into one of those long, dramatic speeches that dragons love so much. This one was about fear.

"Fear is one of the greater forces in the world. It is the weapon of the malevolent and the weakness of the righteous. It can turn heroes into sheep and steel into cotton." Fliara said. She then turned to Sonic, and questioned:

"So, just one thing I need to know, do you think that this thing that attacked you... was a ghost?" Fliara asked, raising a scaly eyebrow. Sonic didn't want to call it that, but...

"Yes, I think that... maybe it was." He said. "I'm not sure." Sonic admitted. Fliara sighed.

"Well, if it was, we _could_ learn a few things about it." Fliara said. "Come here, Sonic. I'm going to try a tarot reading." The dragon said. Sonic starred at her quizzically.

"What good will that do?" He asked, refusing to give the stubborn dragon any more credit than he had to.

"Tarot cards do more than predict the future. They can be used to find information about lots of things." Fliara stated matter-of-factly, ruffling her wings like and upset bird ruffling its chest feathers. "Now sit!" She said, pointing to a spot on the ground in front of her, then turning to take her tarot cards from Tails, who was playing with them again.

"Still sounds like bogus to me." Muttered Sonic under his breath, finding he didn't feel well enough to start one of his fights with Fliara yet. He and Amy sat down in front of the young dragon, perplexed at how she could sit with her legs crossed like that. As a matter of fact, no one in the room except Fliara understood how people could meditate with their feet on their knees, it looked terribly uncomfortable and Sonic was sure it must give her leg cramps. ...Dear frogs, I've done it again. Someone yell at me for being off-topic. (Back to the story.)

The dragon shuffled the tarot-cards and then held them out to the confused Sonic. The blue hedgehog took them, but didn't understand why.

"Hold these for a few seconds, and try to think about what happened back at your apartment." Fliara said while she turned to get her notepad. Sonic did as he was told but he found it... uncomfortable to think of the attack any more than he had to. That awful feeling of having your soul ripped out... it was the worst thing Sonic had ever felt. Even the time when... no! Must- ...sustain... self... from... going... into... pointless... anecdote! Ack!

A few seconds later, Fliara took the cards and placed them down in a pyramid shape. She flipped over each card and interpreted the meaning, starting with the bottom-left card, which just so happened to be 'death'. Sonic swallowed nervously.

"The attack was based on either the intent to kill or revenge of death. Now Sonic hasn't killed anyone so we can safely assume this attacker wasn't planning on letting him live." Fliara explained. She flipped over the next four cards of the bottom row. They went in order from right to left; Fear, dark, love and sanctuary. Fliara ignored them for now. She then flipped over the top three cards. They read; dream, the rose, and light. The top card was 'labyrinth' Fliara looked at the cards uncertainly for a moment, then snapped her fingers and laughed at herself, realizing what they meant and feeling very foolish for not spotting it sooner. Fliara looked up to her friends with a grin.

"I know that look." Said knuckles. "What'd you find out?"

"Well, it's just this simple." Fliara said, pointing to the pyramid of cards, which looked like this.

(Labyrinth)

(Light) (Rose) (Dream)

(Sanctuary) (Love) (Dark) (Fear) (Death)

"You see here," Fliara pointed to dream and fear. "This signifies a nightmare. Your nightmare was no coincidence, Sonic. You could tell something was after you, and... well, you're sensitive to dark energies and malicious intentions. You know, like in the beginning of _Ocarina of Time_, when link had the nightmare because of the dark forces in Hyrule? And then he talked to the Great Deku Tree?" Fliara said. Nobody answered. None of them had played _Ocarina of Time_. Shame on them. "The presence of such a violent spirit was obvious to you, and that's how you responded." Fliara explained. "You're lucky that you had that nightmare before the ghost showed up; otherwise it would have gotten you in your sleep." Fliara moved the cards dream, dark, fear and death to one side. "That spirit wanted to _kill _you. It wasn't there for amusement or to play a trick on a mortal, as ghosts and spirits usually do, no, it was there to _kill_ you." Fliara said. "I can tell this because of the dark and death cards. Dark always refers to someone's intentions."

"But what about the cards to the left?" Sonic asked.

"I find that a little funny myself. The meanings of these cards are the exact opposite. They still talk about the spirit attacking you, though." Fliara said.

"What do they say?" Asked Sonic.

"Well... hmm..." Fliara thought for a moment, scratching at the wooden floor with her claw. She only did that when she was stumped. "This is tough. The rose card can have a lot of meanings. First of all, It's Amy's card. You know, like Knuckles' card is mountain and my card is sand and your card is thunder." She explained, picking it up. "So it could be talking about her, or it could be talking about the season of spring or something else entirely. And a pair of the cards is opposite, light and dark, which is pretty unusual..." Fliara thought about it for a moment. "The cards rose and sanctuary _could_ mean that Amy can protect you from this spirit, but that's a little obvious for tarot cards. There's gotta be a catch." Fliara sifted through the four cards over and over again. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah! I-I do get a feeling like, when she's near, that I'm safe... " Sonic said, suddenly realizing the odd looks from Knuckles and Shadow. He glared at them, but otherwise made no attempt at a comeback. Fliara sighed.

"All I can get out of it is that Amy's love is a sanctuary from these evil spirits. I know that it's corny, but... " The dragon shook her head and continued. "The cards are trying to tell me something else, but I can't figure it out. Light is always talking about a hero, or a battle, or a war or something, but it doesn't fit. And sanctuary means more than just _your_ sanctuary from the spirits, it's also talking about something else... it's on the end of the pyramid, so it must have great significance." Fliara said. To explain it there is... nothing. Let's face it people, who here honestly wants to read through boring paragraphs explaining Fliara's method of tarot-card reading? I don't see any hands!

"But that's all I can get out of it. Sorry." Said Fliara. Sonic sighed.

"It's okay, Fliara. I learned something, anyway." Sonic said. There was a pause throughout the room as all contemplated the results of the tarot-card readings. Finally, Knuckles spoke up.

"...What do you think we should do?" Asked the red echidna. "I mean, if there's some ghost attacking Sonic, who knows who it could go after next, and besides, I'm sure that officer over-confident there doesn't exactly want a poltergeist breathing down his neck." Knuckles said, leaning against the wall.

"I know I sure wouldn't." Tails shuddered. "Creepy." Rouge nodded, but otherwise remained silent.

"Well, I wish I could help, but right now I still don't know enough about the 'spirit' that's attacking Sonic." Said Fliara, gathering up the tarot-cards. "What might help is that we go over to his apartment and see what we can find there." Fliara said. At hearing this Sonic stood up and backed away, shaking his head.

"No way. I'm not going back there!" Sonic protested. Fliara shrugged and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, 'your majesty', but it has to be done." Fliara scoffed sarcastically "You don't want this ghost following you forever, do you?" Fliara asked, slinging the pack over her shoulder. Sonic swallowed nervously. If the spirit did indeed follow him, he would have to stay with Amy for the rest of his life. And not just live in the same house or anything; never be more than two meters from her side. Sonic couldn't do that. Sure, Sonic didn't hate the girl, he loved her now, but he knew that it couldn't be done. It meant that he would never be able to run freely again. It meant he would never be able to fight Eggman; if Amy came along every time, Eggman would suspect something, kidnap him or Amy, which would separate them, and then the ghost would...

Sonic didn't want to think about it.

He didn't want to die, and he _never_ wanted to feel his soul get -nearly- ripped out again, like he had during the attack. And he knew that...

Amy couldn't protect him forever.

Sonic shook his head, and looked back towards Fliara. Sonic tried to give a smile, but he felt no more like his normal self than yesterday...

"O-okay. I'll come." He agreed, secretly nervous about the whole thing, but knowing that he had to find a way to stop this monster. Fliara stood up and started to pack up the cards and other equipment into her backpack when Shadow stood up.

"Wait a minute, we're not leaving yet, I was promised a breakfast!" The black hedgehog demanded. Knuckles nodded.

"Yeah! That's right! Can't believe I almost forgot!" Knuckles said.

"You already ate breakfast! Don't tell me you're hungry _again!_" Rouge protested. Knuckles shrugged.

"Lighten up. Just because _you_ fly like a bird doesn't mean _I_ have to eat like one." Answered the echidna. Rouge rolled her eyes but otherwise seemed to drop the subject. The group settled down and enjoyed their meal; even Alexi ate, after Shadow encouraged her to. Alexi didn't _need_ to eat. Another genetic experiment thing.

* * *

"HOLD IT! CONFUSING!" Protested a member of the audience, standing up so quickly that he knocked the popcorn out of the hands of the person sitting next to him.

"Oops. Sorry. Alexi was the fourth prototype in the 'project shadow' thing, made by omega laboratories, who made prototypes 1-5, Alexi being the only survivor. 1-3 died due to experimentation failure and 5 exploded with the rest of the lab when Alexi... err... "left" to put it in the simplest terms. More on Alexi is **_not_** included in the _non-existent appendix._ Meaning it's not there, meaning that there is no more text explaining Alexi.

* * *

Finally, Fliara stood up and announced that it was indeed time to visit the scene of the attack. Sonic seemed terribly uneasy about the entire method of Fliara's resolving, which didn't seem to include the fact he had nearly died in that very place only hours ago. Amy noticed his disdain towards the conclusion but try as she might; she could only calm him to some extent.

* * *

...I could put a chapter break here, but I promised I'd have the attack scene in chapter four... oh well. Tough shi- ...tough ships. Wait a minute, this is rated T! Tough shit it is then. And I guess that I will put a chapter break here. 


	5. More Sonic torturing JOY!

Here beith the final resting place of next chapter. Read and review, or I _**will**_ eat your spleen.

* * *

Sonic walked miserably through the streets. That's right, walked. Odd, isn't it? Maybe it was the fact that he didn't want to get to his destination any sooner than he had to. That could of been it; without a doubt. Or maybe he didn't want to stray from Amy's protection. That could have very well been the reason. Or maybe he was still exhausted from the recent turn of events and simply did not feel like running.

But those matters are trivial, for the outcome was the same;

Sonic certainly would not be running to the very place where he had nearly died.

"Hurry up!" Shouted Fliara from overhead, swooping down low from the skies. The dragon had to do an excessive amount of loops and turns to keep the rest of the gang from falling behind, and she was now annoyed with the exhaustion of the extra effort. She couldn't glide slowly enough no matter how she tried. She constantly had to turn around, flapping madly, go against the wind for a while, turn around, go up, go down, turn around again, ...

...As you can imagine, it was needlessly tiring. She again frowned upon the blue hedgehog below her. Fliara was used to Sonic running at top-speed. Fliara often raced him, flying low to the ground to make it fair (elevation difference can effect how much ground you cover) and it was much less agonizing to fly in one straight direction. All this needless flapping was putting the dragon in a rather offensive mood. She again swooped low, playfully swiping her clawed feet a few inches over Knux's head, not unlike a predator bird after fish. Knuckles ducked, soon standing upright to shake a fist at his little sister. Fliara simply chuckled, finally discovering a way to ease her boredom. Next up was Shadow, but when she flew down at him, he almost caught her claw and flung her to the ground. She flapped away playfully, giving an annoyed squawk. She decided to leave him alone.

"Damn kids." Grumbled Shadow, looking over at Alexi. She was again huddled up in her robe, her face invisible in the shadow that the hood cast. Shadow knew better than to expect an answer from her. But, he still liked talking to her. "Do you think that thing that attacked Sonic was dangerous?" Shadow asked. Alexi did not face Shadow or do anything else, but did answer.

"Whatever it is, I hope I find it. This is one of those soul-sapping monsters. I intend to get it to kill me." Alexi said. Shadow couldn't help feeling terrible at that answer. Of course he knew that Alexi's only wish was to die. But... he didn't want her to die. The words she had said awakened so many emotions that Shadow thought he had learned to repress. Guilt for being the reason she was created. She was a prototype of none other than himself, made to learn about genetic experimentation, about ultimate life. And that same sense of duty, somehow feeling responsible for her. And there were again those mixed feelings of defeat and sorrow. He had once thought that Alexi was improving, that maybe she was beginning to enjoy life. He now realized it had once again been an illusion and again was depressed. He felt this sorrow because he would never hear Alexi say "thank you." For the things he tried to do for her, day to day. There were many things he wanted Alexi to eventually experience; happiness, and peace, being a few, but Shadow knew that she no longer cared for those things. He sighed, and found himself walking a little closer to her, somehow feeling that she felt comfort at his presence. Shadow knew that it was no more than some fantasized illusion on his part, but it was all he had.

He was secretly desperate for any interaction with the leopard. He wanted her to heal.

Meanwhile, Knuckles, Rouge and Tails walked in the middle of the group, every so often either looking back to check on Sonic and Amy or in front to make sure Alexi wasn't trying to kill something. When they weren't on the lookout for emotional explosions from either of the two, they were talking, mostly about the tarot reading.

"Knuckles, how can Amy protect Sonic from the ghosts? It doesn't make any sense." Said Tails. The fox had a point. I think we all know that Sonic is usually the one doing the protecting. And now, he was helpless, and Amy was the only person to run to. Sonic himself didn't seem to mind, but Tails wasn't sure if he could really look at his hero the same way again. After all, he had nearly cried, could you believe it, _cried_ about the idea of Amy leaving his side for more than three seconds. Tails didn't care how scary the 'attack' had been; it shouldn't give Sonic the right to turn into some sniveling weakling.

Or that's what the fox thought, but his understanding wasn't deep enough. Perhaps he had obtained one of Fliara's classic faults, judging too fast.

Tails' train of thought was broken when Knux answered the question.

"I think that we all know the answer to that, Tails." Knuckles said. Tails shook his head.

"No I don't."

"You're a little young to-"

"I am not!" Protested Tails angrily. Knuckles sighed, but looked like he was going to answer the question.

Then knuckles went into such a long and boring explanation that I shall skip it and give you the gist of it right now.

Amy, due to one of her ancestors, has siren blood. Yes, the mythical creature. She hasn't quite mastered the 'voice' yet, but having the blood of a mythical creature gives her a bonus on the fields of magic and supernatural things, such as ghosts. She even knows a few common siren-spells, as in blessing water, (it will instantly cure any nausea or virus- she does this in one of my stories) and a small spell for warding off nightmares. And although she doesn't quite have it mastered yet, there is a spell that can begin to lull a person to sleep. However it won't work without the voice-powers, which Amy won't master until she is 19.

Ghosts are attracted to severe emotions. Some ghosts feel more comfortable around a person who commonly expresses or receives feelings of love. However, some ghosts would rather hang around a person who often feels or receives hate. And there are some ghosts or spirits that actually _feed_ off certain emotions and have energy drained from others. The one that attacked Sonic was a spirit like that, using the energy deprived from Sonic's fear to do things such as turn off the lights, open doors, make loud noises, and even harm Sonic. Some spirits can also get their energy elsewhere, like from the earth itself. This means that the ghost attacking Sonic must feed off fear and is blocked by Amy's love for our little blue "hero". Corny laziness to the rescue.

Knuckles would have continued on with this boring answer when finally Fliara announced "we're here!"

Sonic instantly looked up from his feet, slightly alarmed. He was still uneasy. Amy, noticing his distress, gently rubbed his back and he decided that he would have to do this, whether he wanted to or not. He did, however, move a little closer to Amy, wanting to be nearer to her comforting aura.

Fliara glided to the ground, glad that the reasonless fluttering had come to an end but was still sad to land anyway. Fliara's home was in the sky and she would always be sad to leave it. The group looked at the now familiar building, no evidence of the attack present on the brick walls. It was a one-story, with a couple of apartments on the first floor. There were a few doors seen there. One led to the lobby, where the front desk resided, as well with information about the building. She walked to the door of the apartment Sonic lived in and attempted to open it, but made no progress, finding the door was jammed. After melting the doorknob with a fire-enveloped claw, (destroying the lock) she forced it open and walked inside, the rest of the group following her.

A few decided not to comment on how she simply could have asked Sonic to unlock the door, deciding that it would bring no benefit.

Many members of the group gasped as they entered the room, including Sonic, for this was not how he had left it.

The wallpaper and drywall itself was slashed, as if monstrous claws had cut into the walls wherever they could reach them, even the ceiling and floor had similar cuts and gashes, all of the furniture destroyed. The items that had once lain unbroken on the ground were now shattered; every thing in the house had seemingly been destroyed. Fliara walked slowly into the room, not a flicker of emotion on her face.

"T-this isn't how I left at all..." Sonic said, looking around panicked. Fliara turned to look back at the group for a moment, but soon turned and walked towards the kitchen, examining the damage.

Surprisingly, Sonic walked a bit from Amy's side, kneeling next to a photograph that lay on the floor.

It was the same one that Sonic had stepped on yesterday, only this time the glass was shattered and it was clawed to pieces. Sonic reached down to pick it up, but once he touched it a shock of cold ran through him, like lighting, hurling him into an ocean of blinding pain. He jumped back and practically ran to Amy, clinging to her with one arm while he starred, terrified, at the photo. The cold had felt so similar to the claws that had dug into his chest. Sonic was scared, confused; ...he just didn't want to hurt anymore... He clung to Amy, and the pink hedgehog responded by walking over to one of the nearly destroyed but still functional chairs, and sitting down, cradling the traumatized Sonic in her arms like an infant. She gently ruffled the quills on his back and used her other hand to pull Sonic closer to her.

Fliara looked around, sighing heavily. She walked into the small kitchen and saw that all of the electrical sockets had exploded- as if someone had stuck a wet fork into the outlets. She looked around the destroyed kitchen, the plates shattered and spread across the floor, the cabinet doors blown off and the contents littered though the room, the broken glass on the floor and the bugs that crawled around it. The dragon became slightly uneasy. Fliara was certain that she was dealing with something more powerful than she could have expected. She turned and went down the hall, and into Sonic's room, where there was even more destruction than in the rest of the house. The window was smashed, (although Fliara thought that was odd-, since she hadn't seen that it was smashed when she entered) and the furniture was no longer in one piece. Traces of steel and cotton from the bed were strewn about the room, wooden splinters covered the floor and stuck from the walls like arrows, and occasionally there were the porcelain shards of a lamp, shining lightly in the mid-morning sun. She also saw two large holes in the wall, but they stopped at the brick of the outer wall, unlike some of the slashes that actually made dents into the solid brick. Fliara assumed these were where the 'claws' had burst from the wall, as Sonic had described. At that moment, she knew that the attacker was either severely magical or definitely a strong spirit. Fliara then turned and headed back to the living room, where everyone else awaited.

"What's the matter?" Asked Amy, temporarily looking up from the blue hedgehog in her arms. Fliara shrugged as she walked in the room, looking back and forth between her comrades. She walked to her backpack, and removed a device resembling a scale from the back pocket, soon removing a small glass jar as well as a small sack of lavender-colored powder.

"Something definitely happened here. Sonic certainly didn't do all of this himself." She said, placing the scale on the floor, and sitting in front of it. The members of the group crowded around her, save for Amy, who remained in the chair with Sonic in her arms. "I think that the spirit here could be an extensively powerful one. Or it could be a great quantity of small ones. I'd just like to know what I'm up against." She held up the sack. "Powdered lavender, along with some other plants rumored to be good for medicine and spiritual matters. Also salt; it's always been used in the fight against evil. You know, witches, werewolves, vampires, every one of them-hated salt." Fliara explained as she spread it out in a circle around the scale, then pouring the rest on the left-hand side of the scale. The scale slowly descended, but the other side stayed in it's levitating position. It wasn't really a scale, they realized, because the two sides weren't connected at all, rather the two dishes were their own set of scales, without the other side. She then placed the glass jar on the right dish, and the scale dipped down to mirror it's opposite half. "Glass has often been used to detect evil spirits. Once I set down the talisman, we will watch for cracks in the glass. Any glass would do, but this is the cheapest thing I could find." She said, thumbing through the talismans in her pocket. "The more cracks in the jar, the more powerful the spirit. Or spirits." Fliara said. She picked a talisman from the pack, and set it in front of the scale, waiting for a result. The group watched in silence and anticipation, tension flooding the room like the morning light from the windows. It was nine am, and most people were already on their way to work or school.

"What happens if the spirit is powerful?" Knuckles asked. Fliara sighed, thinking carefully over her answer.

"I'll take the necessary steps to exterminate it. I might take a while, considering it has very specific intentions. Whatever it is, it's not going to give up easily." Fliara said, watching the glass intentfuly. Nothing was happening yet, but Fliara didn't seem phased.

"I-is this safe for Sonic?" Asked Amy, holding the hedgehog closer to her. Sonic did not protest. He liked being held like this; it was calming and comfortable.

"It should be. The only danger is him stepping on a piece of glass if the jar breaks." Fliara joked, still watching the scale.

"It could break?" Asked Shadow incredulously. Fliara nodded.

"'Depends on the power of the spirit." She explained, still watching.

Suddenly, a small crack appeared on the glass' edge. A silence filled the room as the group held their breath, except for Alexi who scoffed lightly, only to receive a gentle glare from Shadow. She ignored him. The crack slowly grew only to stop halfway down the jar, and a collective sigh of relief passed through the room.

The relief was destroyed as quickly as the glass jar.

Suddenly, cracks sped up and down the glass' surface in terrifying agility, just before the jar itself burst into fine powdered glass. Fliara and the others had just a quick enough reaction time to shield their eyes as tiny dust-sized knives stabbed through the air, biting into their limbs and scattering across the ground. A gasp was heard from Knuckles but all responses were soon cut short by a maniacal scream that seeped into the room, it's sound distant but poisonous none the less. It thundered through the halls and down the heroes' spines, chilling the air with it's defying malevolence.

Suddenly, the room was flooded with darkness, the door slamming shut. The group shot to their feet, startled, as they heard dark, rolling laughter echo through the halls once more.

"What's going on?" Whispered knuckles, panicked. Fliara shook her head, and stammered-

"I-I don't know!"

Shadow backed against the wall and placed his hand on what he expected to be the wood of the door. He was puzzled at what he found.

"The door's gone." Shadow muttered under his breath.

"Quiet!" Said Fliara, holding up a claw. Soon everyone understood why. Footsteps could be heard, approaching slowly from Sonic's room. Amy felt Sonic press into her, crying.

"T-this is just like before... just like before... Amy, help me!" Sonic begged, clinging to her.

"Not so loud!" Snapped Fliara, trying to listen for the footsteps. Another wave of maniacal laughter went through the halls as the entire apartment shuddered at the deep, chilling noise. Sonic could be heard whimpering. Nobody blamed him. Rouge looked around, then said to Fliara,

"Shouldn't there be light coming from the windows?" She asked. Fliara nodded, looking around nervously. Fliara tried to squint through the thick darkness, but dragon eyes, with all their superiority, were not made for the dark.

"I know, Rouge." Fliara said. "Do you see anything?" She asked the bat, knowing that she could find her way in the dark with echolocation.

"I can't. There's something interfering." Answered the bat. Other frequencies were making the picture far too blurry.

Fliara swallowed nervously. This ghost knew what it was doing. Fliara decided that her only option was to illuminate the room with flame. It was risky, she didn't want to upset the ghosts, (any sudden moves could set them off, and then her and her friends might not stand a chance.) but it might be their only hope of escaping. She inhaled deeply, she had been doing this 'fire-making' all her life but it still might not listen to her. She snapped her fingers hopefully and was relieved as a seed of flame formed around her fingertips, illuminating the room slightly. Soon the flame grew, but the group refused to believe what they saw.

The walls dripped with black ooze, with a metallic, oily, purple sheen. The floor and ceiling had turned black but did not ooze any viscous fluids, and something stood at the hall entrance. It could not be seen due to the dark shrouds around it, but a deep growl was heard from the black fog. Amy, closest to the hall, stared at it, terrified, and felt Sonic grow cold, out of fear, in her arms. Amy looked from the beast, to Sonic, and then to her friends.

Sonic was in danger. These were the monsters attacking him. If she did not defend Sonic from them now, there would be no Sonic left to defend. She clutched the little blue hedgehog to her, her gaze becoming calmer as she stared at the defying blackness surrounding the 'spirit'

It could not be seen very well, darkness shrouded its decayed form, but a tattered cloak surrounded a half-rotted claw, the only thing of the beast that could be seen. Hoarse breathing could be heard from the monster, it's eyes a bright red, but otherwise nothing was seen about the awful creature.

It did not take long for them to notice that two more stood in the kitchen, walking slowly towards the chair that Amy sat in. The pink hedgehog soon was glaring at the monsters and began to stand, trying to get Sonic away from them.

"Don't move!" Warned Fliara as Amy attempted to leave. Fliara did not want her to set the monsters off; otherwise they might leap onto the pair like starved lions, ripping them to shreds. Amy acknowledged the warning and slowly sat back down, pulling Sonic closer to her.

"Oh god... dear god it's happening again... please no, Amy please no..." muttered Sonic, pulling closer to Amy. The pink hedgehog gently smoothed Sonic's quills, attempting to calm him. Fear pulsed through her, but it was not for herself. She stared calmly and hatefully at the beasts nearing her, the beasts that threatened her, the beasts that wanted to take her Sonic. "D-don't let them take me!" Sonic begged, his voice reduced to a mere whisper.

"I won't." Answered Amy, not removing her eyes from their glaring hold on the monster nearing her. Soon, the beast in front of her reached out a claw and slowly wrapped the sharp, decayed fingers around Sonic's waist. The blue hedgehog would have screamed at the pain racing through his limbs but his voice did not agree with him, his cry of agony reduced to a muted whimper. Amy was about to attack the monster but Fliara signaled 'no!' afraid that it would anger the beasts into a stronger attack than they could drive off. Amy wrapped Sonic more tightly in her arms, in efforts to comfort him in his pain. Again Sonic tried to scream but he only managed a weak stammer. The lengthy claws attempted to pull Sonic from his place in Amy's arms, but the fingers tore at more than his flesh. Sonic could feel the same cold, the same pain, the same vitriolic sensation that his soul was slowly being torn from his body. Sonic screamed, and this time there was nothing to stop the noise. It was too much. Amy couldn't take it. Her mallet formed in her hand and she struck the beast attempting to take Sonic, a defying shriek was heard but then all three monsters lunged upon the two hedgehogs, screaming and shrieking in protest.

Fliara's hands suddenly burst into white, hot flames that roared around her arms and nearly up to the ceiling, illuminating the room. Black, undefined shapes dashed down the hall, away from the two hedgehogs, screaming in irate defiance. Fliara ran to the hall, picking up a talisman and shouting something in a foreign language, throwing the talisman to the ground. A burst of light flooded the room, and everyone shielded their eyes, save Fliara, who muttered something else in a language unfamiliar to her friends, and then there was another shriek heard and the light faded.

Light flooded once again through the now broken windows and filtered gently down onto the scene below. Other than the past destruction, no evidence of the recent feud was present. The walls no longer dripped ooze, and the door had reappeared. The group paused, looking around, relief washing over them as they realized it was over...

...For now.

Fliara gave out a moan of exhaustion and sank willingly to her knees; the use of so much energy had been frightfully draining. Her brother instantly ran and helped her up, worried.

"What happened?" Knuckles asked as the dragon regained her balance, panting slightly. Fliara swallowed and answered:

"I managed to get it to go away. But it's not leaving for long." Fliara said. "Thank Amy, she gave it quite a scare." She walked to the middle of the room, looking around to make sure that everyone was okay. Rouge, Tails, and even Shadow were immensely freaked out but Alexi seemed to have enjoyed the whole thing. Fliara smiled lightly as she realized she had successfully preformed her fist extermination spell. But the monster would be back, ad that speedily dampened her hopes.

"Th-there's something wrong with Sonic!" Shouted Amy, looking up from the blue hedgehog to answer the stares of her friends. "He's not moving! He won't answer me!" The group crowded around Amy to see if Sonic was indeed hurt. The poor hedgehog was deathly pale, cold sweat matting his fur and running down his forehead. He lay, limp in Amy's embrace, except for his right hand, which had Amy's arm in such a firm hold that it was rather uncomfortable. It was so tight that it was actually starting to hurt the pink hedgehog, but Amy ignored that, wrapping Sonic up in her arms. (She found that there were no blankets nearby.) Amy discovered that she was frightened, the hedgehog's heartbeat was so hurried and his skin so pale that she was almost scared that he would die right there in her arms, just of fear. She found herself placing Sonic's head on her shoulder and whispering into his ear:

"Shhh... Shh... It'll be fine... Sonic, it's gone... you're safe." Amy murmured to him. Sonic moved slightly but otherwise did not respond; the poor boy had not even blinked since the claws had wrapped around his chest. Amy turned to Fliara, who looked almost as terrified as the blue hedgehog. "What's wrong with him? I- is he okay?" Fliara swallowed nervously, but then shakily stammered:

"Get him out of here." Fliara said to Amy, pointing to the door. "We should all leave. Right now. It was a mistake to come here." Fliara said, her voice unsteady. The others followed without protest, Amy carrying Sonic.

* * *

Yay, more Sonic torturing! Aren't so happy now, are you, Sonic? No! And it's because you almost had your soul eaten! And we get to figure out why next chapter!

Questions that will be answered next chapter;

1. What are the things attacking Sonic and why?  
2. Why in the nine hells did it take komodo so long to write these chapters?  
3. What is an okapi?  
4. Why aren't you people asking me rediculous questions about Shalexi yet?

Good night, and have a good tomorow. Or else.


	6. Tha mushy chapter of doom

Hello, my wonderful friends! I missed you all so much! ...Even though I only didn't hear from you in a week. For Ri2 it was two weeks!

And, Ri2, for the **_LAST TIME,_** _Knuckles and Fliara are **not actually biologically related**. Knuckles found Fliara's egg **abandoned on Angel Island **when he was 12 _(in my stories he's 24) _and took care of Fliara, and the two grew up together, and became **like** brother and sister. They are **not actually related**, but their bond is no less because of it._

I've told you more times than I can count, Ri2! How could I possibly say it clearer? No offense, though. You're a great friend! And I was really relieved to get your review, I thought you had forgotten about me!

Oh, and as for Isu, I explained the Drake thing in chapter three. You should read the closures. They explain lots of stuff. And Sonic is going to be struggling against death for the next day or so. Yay!

To Samantha, I am very glad that you understand that Sonic's OOC-ness is made to torture him, but I also realize I went a little overboard with it in chapter five. I'm trying to support his fear with moments of thought such as the ones in early chapter five and early chapter three, but I admit I went way overboard! And Sonic is this frightened because there is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING he can do to fight these monsters. He's helpless. He hates it, but the pain and dark and fear is too much for him. He breaks down. And the ghosts attacking him have the power to fiddle with his mind and cause reasonless fear. Don't worry, from here on out the OOC won't be so overly extreme, but Sonic will suffer unimaginable pain and torture in other ways. And I didn't totally make Sonic _too_ OOC. He's still loyal and persistent, and all in all his good hearted self, but he's also hurt and he's also scared, and this has gotten rid of his overconfidence and obnoxious ego, the things that I hate about Sonic. I'm trying to make Sonic's situation sound serious, in such a way that it would give him reason to be this frightened. Any suggestions on how I could give Sonic a more explicit reason to be this terrified would help.

And to Leeve, I already knew what an okapi was. I was going to say, but you ruined it. (Pouts.) And why didn't you put Fliara in your Monty Python story? I think she would have made a good knight who says 'Ni' or maybe the black knight. You know, the one that gets his limbs cut off... yeah, that's a funny part.

To phantom, and everyone else that reviewed. Thank you kindly, these reviews keep me going, and I'm glad that I'm doing so well. Although this chapter turned out quite the piece of crap in it's first draft, and it needed a lot of work. It's also the second to last chapter with emotional parts before the story takes a huge turn. So, here it is. And I think that I did well!

To Behindtheshadow, thanks for reading this, but you didn't review... (pouts)

* * *

The group walked as fast as they could down the street, not wanting to run because it would draw attention to them. Fliara was not even flying, and everyone was silent, not daring to mention the horror they had witnessed that morning. 

Fliara hurried her friends inside Amy's house (It was the nearest place.) making sure that everyone was fine. Everyone then sat down, Knuckles deciding he wanted some answers on the past event.

"So that-... that ghost? T-That was the thing attacking Sonic?" He asked in Fliara's general direction. The dragon nodded.

"I believe so, Knux. I had no idea that it was that powerful, though. We sure have our hands full with this one. That is, if we make it." The dragon sighed and sat down, holding a hand to her aching head. Silence flooded the room. It was not like Fliara to be so negative. Tails shifted his weight, uncomfortable at his dragonish friend's lack of optimism, which had marked her personality for so long. The fox walked up and patted Fliara's shoulder.

"We can beat it, Fliara." Said Tails. "After all of the battles this team has been through, we're not going to back down to a little ghost." Tails said. Fliara's eyes snapped open and she gave the fox an annoyed glare.

"Don't be naive!" Snapped the dragon. Tails flinched away, surprised. "This thing is powerful, and dead serious. If we mess around or have an attitude like that, Sonic won't stand a chance, and neither will we! And what's worse, these spirits will be that much closer to their goal!"

"And what's that, Ms. Know-it-all?" Snarled Shadow. Fliara turned to give the hedgehog a meaningful scowl. The black hedgehog shrugged and looked away, but his accusation still hung in the air.

"That much I don't know. It could be the usual world domination thing, or maybe they're just out for power and entertainment. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." The dragon answered, turning back to her former position.

"And when exactly will we get to it, then? We have no leads as to what this thing is, what it wants, or how it plans to get it." The black hedgehog answered. Fliara sighed and stood up, brushing some dirt off of her thighs. Shadow had a point.

"I could try another tarot reading." She said, when Alexi scoffed and turned to the dragon.

"On who? Sonic? Face it, he's not going to be any help for a while." The leopard criticized. (One of her favorite things to do.) Fliara sighed heavily, knowing that Alexi was right. The dragon nodded, and walked over to Amy and Sonic, looking at the poor blue hedgehog. He lay, unmoving in Amy's arms, wide-awake, as he had since the 'attack'. He had not released Amy's arm quite yet, but his expression had calmed slightly. He had not spoken or moved or made a sound for what seemed like an eternity.

Fliara hated to see her nemesis like this. Fliara wanted to be enemy to someone she could pick a fair fight with, not a broken shadow of a hero, marked no longer with bravery and strength but failure and fatigue. She was angry with the ghosts and Sonic as well, but in reality could blame no one but herself. It was kind of her fault. She was the one that had made Sonic return to the apartment in the first place.

"Is he going to be okay, Fliara?" Asked Amy calmly. The dragon took another look at the pale hedgehog, who was breathing heavily. She did not feel like telling Amy her answer right now.

"I for one want to know how and where we're going to find and fight this thing." Said Knuckles. Fliara put her hand to her chin, a habit she had when she was thinking.

"I think I know how we can find out." Fliara said, taking her backpack from the ground and taking out a book on ancient shamans.

* * *

Fliara and the others were soon crowded around the book that she had spread on the floor, opened to a page with a picture of a daemon shrouded in black fog and it's neighboring page filled with beautiful calligraphy. The illustrated demon was none other than the same kind that attacked Sonic. The team now had a lead. Fliara picked through the script, looking for useful information.

"I thought I recognized those spirits." Fliara said, scrolling a finger down the page, looking for specific data. She stopped at the third paragraph, smiling slightly at her success. She began reading the literature, and her friends listened intently. "These 'hunter spirits' are the most powerful servants of Dan-Chilack, the most deadly spirit ever to attack the good forces of the world. They may appear at any place at any time, and can only be driven off by a few methods, some spiritual, and some not. The downside to these servants was that they could only hunt one victim at a time, but usually succeeded with acceptable agility, making them indispensable units of dan-chilack's demonic army. Few remain, and are dormant without orders from their mutually dormant master. They are the last remainders of the demon army after the spiritual battles." Fliara said.

"What in the world were the 'spiritual battles?'" Asked Rouge, bewildered.

"Your guess is as good as mine. It sounds important, though." Fliara flipped to another page, this one depicting a battle scene between hundreds of dark monsters and bright, winged warriors. Most appeared to be bird or moth-like, while others had the appearance of other creatures. Shadow seemed pleased to see one with spikes, while Tails was happy to see a dog-like warrior. Weather it was a fox or wolf could not be determined. "I think it was a battle over the fate of the world. It was between light and dark shamans, but it was actually a very small battle and apparently no one else on the planet believed it to be any more than a pointless quarrel between old crazy shaman." Fliara said, looking across the artwork. "But according to this book, the fate of the world was at stake. And Dan-Chilack was the leader of the dark army" the dragon mused, placing a finger on the half of the page containing the dark monsters.

"So the things that attacked Sonic are servants to someone named dan-chilack?" Asked Knuckles. He scoffed. "Sounds like bogus to me. Besides, those things are way too powerful to be servants."

"And besides, Why would they be attacking Sonic? Or anyone? The light shaman locked their 'master' away. Who would they be getting orders from?" Questioned Rouge, equally suspicious.

"I know." Fliara said. "So there's only one solution." The dragon mused.

"What's that?" Asked Knuckles, skeptical.

"Dan-chilack escaped."

* * *

Dan-Chilack had been a powerful shaman in his early days, but when he began to use his powers for evil, he was assassinated by the shaman's guild before he could do any damage. But, his powers had become so great, that he returned as a threatening demon, intent on dominating the world. He forged the 'demonic army' out of his dark magic and attempted at world conquest. He was defeated by eight Shaman, some young some old, and locked away for centuries.

* * *

It had been two hours since the incident at the apartment. Sonic's condition had not improved much to Amy's dismay. She had been trying fruitlessly to stir him from his paralyzed trance of fear, but he had not woken, simply staring into space with a frightened expression. Amy had, however, managed to keep him warm, which was a troublesome feat due to the fact that Sonic had stopped producing his own body heat after the attack. The blue hedgehog still had not let go of Amy's arm.

Amy sighed and tried again to get Sonic to respond, talking to him and stroking his quills.

"Please, Sonic, stop it... come on, wake up, I'm here, Tails is here, everyone is here, nothing is going to hurt you... please, Sonic..." Amy begged, desperate for his recovery and well-being. Fliara could not help but overhear, and she again felt guilty.

Even if the dragon had never liked Sonic, she had deep respect for the love Amy and Sonic shared and never wanted to disturb it. But if it had not been for Fliara, Sonic would never have gone to the apartment, and he would not be in such danger. Fliara wondered if Amy understood the extensive severity of Sonic's condition. The dragon could see such sorrow in her friend's eyes, and it hurt. Fliara never liked to make mistakes, she tried so hard not to. The dragon sighed. Her entire life of training and still she was a fool. How long would it take until she was a hero?

What Fliara did know about the situation was that Sonic had been attacked by one of the hunter spirits of Dan-Chilack, who had indeed escaped, and was attempting at his comeback. There were no more Shaman in the world, (except for Fliara, and she wasn't a very good one yet) So who could fight him this time? And more importantly, these hunter spirits were too powerful. They couldn't be physically injured, and Fliara wasn't experienced enough in extermination or destruction spells to get rid of them. If Dan-Chilack could not be defeated, it was only a matter of time before Sonic's soul was devoured entirely and then the spirits moved on to another hero.

Fliara also understood Dan-Chilack's plot. His hunter spirits were going to try and kill every hero one by one, starting with Sonic. Fliara felt a pang of envy that Dan-Chilack had thought of that spiny blue pincushion to be more than a threat than she was. The demons would usually have killed their target by now. It was a miracle that Sonic had survived even this long. It wasn't long before the spirits would get frustrated and attack with unfathomable zeal; maybe not even Amy's protective aura could save him then. Fliara sighed. But maybe they wouldn't have to. Sonic had been nearly killed. Those soul-suckers had nearly sapped him dry; the "blue blur" was now clinging to life with such desperation that Fliara was amazed.

Even in his terror, Sonic had become strong in ways he hadn't been before. Sonic, in Fliara's point of view, was nothing but a pig headed undeserving thoughtless bastard and nothing more. An overconfident, stuck up, shallow moron that didn't deserve the respect he got from the community. He had the authority to help the world's more complicated problems and he didn't. If he said that people should work harder and do something with their lives, they would listen. The last time Fliara had suggested that the fans of Sonic stop wasting their time obsessing over him and start fighting to make the world a better place, (like a real hero would do,) she got too many tomatoes thrown at her than she ever wanted to see again.

But after the attack, Sonic had obtained humility, insight, (to small extents) and his ego had taken quite a blow. If Fliara had any say in the matter, these were just the things Sonic needed... but not like this...

Sonic had nearly been killed, nearly had his very soul ripped from his flesh.

Sonic could be dying. And it was her fault.

Fliara was shaken from her thoughts when Amy suddenly shouted:

"Sonic stopped breathing!" The pink hedgehog shouted, horrified. Fliara sprung to her feet, willing to help in order to make up for her mistake. But, Fliara stopped dead in her tracks. She had no idea what to do in the scenario that someone stopped breathing. She had never been taught. Amy however, her knowledge in medicine prevailing, sprang into action, and began breathing air into Sonic's lungs, rubbing his chest to help stimulate the muscles. The pink hedgehog was shockingly calm, but upon deeper inspection Fliara could see fear in Amy's eyes. Not fear for herself, but for Sonic.

"Sonic... Sonic, please..." Amy begged, fighting desperately to start him breathing again. It seemed to go on forever, Amy breathing into his lungs, everyone surrounding the two in panic. Finally, after a total of two minutes, Sonic sprung to life, coughing and sputtering. Amy immediately seized him in her arms. The hedgehog coughed and struggled, but finally settled into a normal cycle of breathing. Immediately afterward, Sonic collapsed, and seemingly fell asleep, closing his eyes.

Fliara knew better than to guess that he was sleeping. He was still in the fearful trance. The coma-like state from which he may never awake. His soul, a great quantity of it, had been... damaged... and Sonic was clinging to life with an unfathomable vigilance Fliara didn't think possible. The dragon was starting to regain faith in herself and her nemesis. It was good to have an enemy again.

A collective sigh of relief passed through the room. Rouge collapsed onto the nearby couch, sighing.

"That was too close. I can't take much more of this... " the bat said. "It's too hard on the adrenaline-" Rouge stopped when an almost unbelievable sound began to come from Sonic's direction.

Amy was crying quietly into Sonic's chest, unmoving from his side. Fliara again was consumed by guilt, and looked to the wooden floor. Amy must have realized the probability of Sonic's survival. Tails looked distraught, not understanding Amy's sorrow. He walked up to her side, trying to help.

"Amy? What's wrong?" Asked Tails. "Sonic's okay! You saved him!" Tails said, attempting to comfort his friend. Amy pushed him away, which startled the yellow fox, and turned to Fliara.

"He's going to die, isn't he?" Amy asked. At first the dragon did not want to look up from the wooden floor, but soon Fliara looked up at Amy, guilt eating at her.

"The odds are not on his side... I-... I would give him till morning, but if he doesn't wake by then, I- ..." Fliara did not finish her sentence. Amy cried silently, holding Sonic and the other heroes stood silent in remorse. Even Alexi seemed to express a small amount of pity. (A huge step for her.) As the silence spread throughout the room, everyone's thoughts strayed to the subject: what if Sonic died?

Knuckles would miss his friend, but otherwise be next to unphased. He would get over it eventually, but... that did not stop the idea of losing a friend painful.

Rouge had the same outlook as Knuckles, but she would mourn for both him and Amy, who everyone knew this would be the hardest for her to accept.

Tails couldn't imagine the thought of his best friend, his hero, Sonic the hedgehog, dying, so he didn't.

Fliara was solemn. Who would she race against now?

Shadow and Alexi gave no indication as to what they thought, but each knew the other's thoughts on the opinion of Sonic's death. (I will not give away the plot twist for those of you who do not know it)

Amy did not think about Sonic's death. She didn't dare think about it. So she thought of what would come after; Sonic's revenge.

"Fliara." Said Amy, placing Sonic back in the chair he sat in. "I want to know more about this dan-chilack. What he wants, and most of all, how do I kill him."

Fliara sat on the ground, book before her, as her comrades sat around her in a semicircle of surrounding chairs and couches. Amy sat, cradling Sonic, in a comfy chair, Tails knuckles and Rouge sat on the Sofa, while Shadow had brought a chair from the kitchen. Alexi stood by the dark and shadowy corner of the door.

"Dan-chilack... Dan-chilack..." repeated Fliara, sifting through her shaman book again. She finally came to a page, which depicted a wide, circular stone building with a tower in the center and two and a half pages of script on the subject. Fliara sighed heavily and began to read. "The labyrinth." Said Fliara, "Was the stronghold of Dan-chilack, it's inside tunnels a gigantic maze, full of traps. In the maze were seven rooms, containing devices that would open the door to the next section of the maze. These devices were guarded by Dan-chilack's dark magic, in which he used the opposing warrior's greatest fear against them" Read Fliara. "If the warrior succeeded in conquering his or her fears, they could pass into the room and control the device, opening the gate for their comrades. Not every gate needed to be opened, for the warriors could take a different route, but when a gate was opened, it meant the warrior would have to stay behind to keep the gate open. The workings and positions of the gate meant that at least five warriors had to succeed in defeating their fear or the shamans would never reach and defeat Dan-chilack. The warriors that did not defeat their fear were held prisoner by Dan-Chilack until the day of victory. A small band of light shaman during Dan-chilack's attack, when they entered the labyrinth and it's seven chambers, completed this feat. The final warrior confronted Dan-chilack and won, saving the fate of the world and locking away the demon for the next five centuries. The labyrinth disappeared as fast as it had came." Fliara then turned to a map, and placed her finger on what looked like plains. "According to the book, and if Dan-Chilack is really back, the labyrinth is here." She said. The heroes looked puzzled, and Knuckles picked up the book, examining the map closely.

"That's impossible." Said Knuckles. "That's right where we are right now. If the labyrinth were there, it would have to be right in the middle of the ci-"

A silence fell upon the room.

"How big is it, Fliara?"

"About one square kilometer. Why?"

"I think it might have just sprung out of the ground a few blocks away."

* * *

Yep, the plot has been revealed. Just two more chapters before we enter THE LABYRINTH! Where all of the REALLY creepy stuph happens. And yes, Sonic could be dying. I don't want to kill him off yet, though... decisions, decisions... Oh well. In Fliara's words, I'll cross that bridge whenI get to it. Anyway, next chapter is going to be preparing for the battle and is the final outcome to whether Sonic survives or succumbs to the ordeal of having his soul nearly ripped out of him. And It's fun, making Sonic a wimp. Umm... I would like a fan-character for the SHORT role of angry FBI agent. This is Optional. If I don't get one, I'm making it an angry red fox. 

I also apollogize for the corny-ness of this chapter. It will get better in a little while, after a chapter of explaning and then a chapter of Fliara getting angry, which immediately afterwardsfollows withthe labyrinth. Toodles!


	7. The other mushy chapter of doom

So, here it is, finally. This is another one of those chapters that explain stuff, but I managed to fit in some suspense and emotional junk. Trust me, the story is slowly reaching its turning point, in which **_everything will be scary. Things will go crazy. All the time. _**So just be patient for a few days and we'll start back up with the scary stuff.

* * *

It had been a total of four hours since the attack. Amy, worrying endlessly, had attempted to get Sonic to eat, spooning soup into his mouth, but many times Sonic would either spit it out or start to choke on it. Even when Amy massaged his neck to get him to swallow the soup, (which his body desperately needed the nutrients of) he simply threw it up. Amy had given up after that, although they had managed to get him to drink some water, which Sonic had kept down for a while. He was still unconscious, even if his condition had not worsened, but looked terribly frail and weak where he lay. Amy still cradled him in her arms, not daring to leave his side for anything. She still had Sonic's blood on her back from yesterday and all in all had gotten no time for herself since Sonic showed up on her doorstep at 2:30am. She looked exhausted, but content as she gently smoothed Sonic's quills. Despite her efforts, it seemed that the blue hedgehog was having bad dreams. 

Fliara was exhausted as well. She had been researching madly through every book she could find to learn about Dan-Chilack, what he was and how he was defeated, (The book hadn't explained that,) only to find nothing. The dragon was growing more and more nervous, buzzing around like some frantic hummingbird. She was preparing the only weapons she knew would help them when they went and found the labyrinth, and was trying to get everything ready.

Knuckles and Rouge were flipping through the news channels, and sure enough all of them told of a mysterious, large building (the labyrinth) that had sprung up only two blocks away from Sonic's house, causing massive damage to the surrounding buildings and roads. It was ensued by mass hysteria. Half of the building had srung up in the park, but the other half had torn through countless homes and buisnesses. The occupants of the buildings had vanished. Fliara said that they were now prisoners of Dan-Chilack, and it was even more important that they defeat him; civilian lives were at stake.

Tails felt bad, considering there was little or nothing he could do to help. Sonic was his friend, and Tails desperately wanted to help him. But he couldn't. Only Amy could do that. She looked exhausted...

Suddenly, an idea came to Tails, and he sprung to his feet, and walked up to Amy. His tails swished happily behind him as he confirmed the good nature of his plan.

"Hey," Tails began, getting Amy's attention, (which was hard to do considering she had all of her attention on Sonic) "If you want a little break, we could watch Sonic for a while." He suggested. Amy looked from the fox to Fliara, who nodded to verify that the spirits wouldn't get him while she was gone. Amy sighed, and stood up, placing Sonic on the couch.

"Okay... for just a moment. Thanks, Tails." Amy mumbled, brushing her hair out of her face. "I think I'll go take a shower."

"You're welcome! We'll take really great care of him!" Tails responded. Amy, ignoring him completely, walked absent-mindedly down the hall and up the steps, exhaustion and sorrow in her stride.

The time when Sonic was separated from Amy was uneventful, although the hedgehog looked like his nightmares had worsened and he mumbled incoherently in his sleep. Fliara was paying no attention; busy arranging things into separate packs and reading about the labyrinth and it's many dangers. Knuckles and Rouge were helping to watch Sonic, while Shadow and Alexi had "volunteered" to help research. Alexi flipped absent mindedly through the pages until she came upon a picture of a person being disemboweled by one of Dan-Chilack's spirits. Shadow, however, was mesmerized with all of the intriguing facts about shamans and magic and the spiritual wars, which fascinated him.

Amy returned; hours passed, preparations were made, but Sonic did not awaken. The heroes' hopes were starting to dim.

Shadow sat on the ground, enjoying the beautiful artwork of the book he was reading. The poetry and literature was elegant as well. Shadow had always been fond of non-fiction, and to believe that this was real was quite entertaining. His thoughts, however, wandered form the heroes and villains portrayed in the book's calligraphy to other matters; he had his own demons to fight. And not the ones working For Dan-Chilack... Shadow was halfway through an intriguing paragraph about a necromancer named Shilla, when Alexi interrupted both the book and his thoughts.

"Do you think that the others stand a chance against this Dan-Chilack?" Alexi mused, thumbing through her book with disinterest. "After all, his powers reside in dark magic. None of them have ever seen that stuff before." The leopard pointed out. She soon chuckled lightly to herself. "Wouldn't it be amusing if this spirit actually succeeded? It would finally prove that the next generation _is_ in the gutter."

Shadow was uncomfortable at what she said.

"The "others" are our friends, Alexi. _We_ will win." Shadow looked as if he had returned to his book, but a question still bit at him. "Do you really think that we don't stand a chance?"

"Fate will answer your question for you if you are patient." She answered, closing her book. "I think I'll leave you with that."

The leopard left, but Shadow knew that her answer would remain in his head for days. He closed his book, (he had reached the end) and started on another one.

It had grown very late, but everyone had decided to stay at Amy's, due to Sonic's condition. They wanted to be there in the morning when Sonic would either wake up, or...

Die.

Amy carried the small blue hedgehog up the stairs, careful not to trip or hurt Sonic or do anything that could cause her blue hero discomfort. She was going to let Sonic sleep in her room tonight, while she would find somewhere else to sleep. Rogue and Knuckles were sharing the couch, (the two had been a couple for a long time) Alexi had left for the night, despite Shadow's efforts to get her to stay, (Alexi doesn't like sleeping.) Tails had taken the comfy chair and Shadow had gone home, promising to show up the next morning after finding Alexi. Fliara was sleeping in the kitchen, where she had collapsed into one of the chairs at sunset. (Dragons immediately fall asleep once the sun goes down. They can't help it.) Amy soon realized that she had nowhere to sleep. She sighed. _Oh well_, she thought, _I'll think of something._

Amy gently placed Sonic on her bed, soon after giving him what could be his last hug. She then, seeing nothing else to do and remembering Sonic's panic at the prospect of being alone, lay down next to him. The last thing Amy wanted was for the ghosts to take him, even if they, in a strange way, already had.

Amy found it very hard to fall asleep. She carefully draped a protective arm over Sonic, watchfully observing his steady breathing.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

(I might have put a chapter break here, but I couldn't do that to you guys. I've dragged this scene on for like three chapters)

* * *

Fliara woke up to the first rays of sunshine peeking over the horizon. (Dragons also immediately wake up once the sun comes up. They can't help that either.) She sat up in the chair, moaning groggily, exhaustion overtaking her for a few moments. She had worked so hard all day preparing for the attack on the labyrinth. She wished she could fall back asleep, but, being a dragon...

Fliara had no choice but to wake up. The girl didn't believe in coffee, but walked over to the fridge and got a soda. _I know it's unhealthy, but what else is there to do? _Thought Fliara to herself, taking a sip of the soda. The sky was still partially dark, but bird chirps could be heard outside. Fliara yawned and looked out the window. It was only 5:00am; all of the others were still sound asleep. Fliara groaned lightly and looked at the first few rays of the sunrise. Suddenly, sleepiness unclouded her thoughts and Fliara nearly spit out he soda, remembering something very important.

Sonic! He might be better right now!

* * *

(Here comes, at least, 10 gallons of mush. I warned you.)

* * *

Amy didn't remember waking up, but she found herself lying by Sonic's side, the first few lights of dawn in the still dark sky. She sat up, knowing immediately that Sonic was either dead or recovered. The pink hedgehog closed her eyes, nervous. She wasn't sure if she was ever going to open her eyes. He could be gone. He could be lying, dead, by her side. A part of her didn't want to look, for she was scared of what she would see. But soon, concern over took her. She had to know. She looked to the hedgehog and was shocked to find that...

(Oh this is so hard! What to do... What to do! ...Oh, phooey I would need another character if I killed him off... well, I could always... no, and I couldn't. Aww... Oh well, I can torture him some more!)

He was breathing! He was alive! He was alive!

Amy shook Sonic's shoulder, attempting to wake him, and the blue hedgehog flinched away from her rough gesture, his eyes flickering open.

"...A-Amy?" He mumbled, attempting to sit up. He didn't get very far, considering Amy immediately enclosed him in her arms, crying into his shoulder. At first Sonic was confused and disoriented, not understanding why Amy was crying or hugging him so tightly, but soon, Sonic clung to her in return, remembering the terror of yesterday morning. He began sobbing quietly into Amy's chest, the pain and fear as fresh in his mind as the nightmares that he had experienced all day. Amy gently ruffled the spines on his back, slowly moving a hand up and down the soft quills. (Hedgehog spines, at least on the back, are actually just for show, and are not harmful in any way. The spines on the back of the head are the ones used for defense._ Females do not have the defensive quills, and must use offense to protect themselves and their mates_. _This is why females have much more upper body strength than the males. _From _The Documentary on Sonic's Species _by Brad Mcfluke, founder of Fluke-land.) Amy stopped crying after a while but Sonic's sobs continued for what seemed like hours.

The little blue hedgehog wept into her chest for quite some time, his tears staining her red dress and his shoulders shaking underneath her protective embrace, until Sonic forced himself to stop, ignoring the painful ache in his throat. He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't keep crying, keep running... there was so much more to do. He was about to speak up, when Amy interrupted him.

"Sonic... I- I was so worried that you weren't going to make it... that you were going to let go..." She said quietly, still holding him. The blue hedgehog was slightly offended, but mostly confused. Give up? How? What had happened since he had passed out due to the pain? Had he been seriously hurt? How long was he sleeping?

"Hey... I- I may get scared, but I don't give up. You know that." Sonic said. "And I- ...I want to start fighting back, a- ..." he said. Amy hushed him, and cradled him in her arms. Sonic, despite his renewed zeal, allowed Amy to hold him. He still found comfort at not having to experience the fear, and gladly cuddled deeper into her embrace, resting his head against her chest. If he listened hard enough, he could hear her heartbeat. It was comforting.

"You did fight. You fought hard. You lived, Sonic. You're incredible." She said, quietly stroking his quills. Sonic looked to the ground. Maybe he had, but that was not what he was talking about.

"You're just saying that. It's not working, Amy, I want to fight." He argued, but made no move to escape from her arms. Amy sighed. Was he right? ...Amy wished she could tell him otherwise, but the answer was no.

"I just don't want to come that close to losing you again." Amy said, gently smoothing his fur. Sonic looked away, partially to make it easier for Amy to pet his quills; (Sonic liked it when she did that. It felt good.) And partially because he grudgingly knew she was right. "You have to understand that."

"You won't lose me. Please, Amy. Let me-"

"Sonic!" Amy said harshly, having a tone of such serious force that Sonic was instantly silenced. Amy sighed. "I know that you want to. But you're still weak. You can do the best you can, but... that's only so much. Please understand that, and please don't scare us like that again!" Amy said, giving Sonic a fierce embrace. Sonic laughed to himself.

"Amy! ...Hey, take it easy! You're squishing me!" He joked, playfully squirming away from her hug. The two play-fought like that for a few minutes, Sonic squirming away from her and Amy pulling him back into her embrace, when suddenly Amy gasped. Sonic, quite surprised, froze, wondering what was the matter.

"The others! We have to go and tell them you're okay!" Amy exclaimed, standing and walking to the door. Sonic panicked: she was leaving! Even if he was feeling better, He didn't want to be left alone! Not after what happened yesterday!

"H-hey, w-wait up!" Sonic protested, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and trying to stand up.

(Okay, here's some more Sonic torture!)

...But he couldn't.

Sonic was confused; when he tried to shift his weight onto his legs... they wouldn't hold up. They would collapse under his weight, and he'd fall back onto the bed.

"A-Amy!" Sonic called, startled. What was wrong? Why couldn't he stand?

"What's wrong?" Asked Amy, reappearing in the doorway. In her eyes, she didn't see anything wrong with Sonic. The blue hedgehog looked to his useless legs, to Amy, and then stared into space, silent. He couldn't believe it. He had lost his ability to walk. "Sonic, what's wrong?" Repeated Amy, worried. She walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Sonic quickly wiped away a tear of frustration and mumbled:

"I can't walk."

Sonic felt terrible. Amy instantly embraced him, a sorrowful expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, Sonic." She said. "It's not permanent, don't worry. It's probably just a side effect of the attack. You're still healing, Sonic. Give it time." The pink hedgehog said, gently stroking her hero's back.

But it didn't help.

Sonic hugged her in return, although it was difficult because of the sling on his left arm (And don't you go asking me, 'what sling?' Don't tell me you've forgotten already! Read chapter one again.) More tears of frustration fell down Sonic's face, he felt even more helpless now. Amy felt the tears on her shoulder and released Sonic from her embrace, looking him in the eye.

"Hey... " Amy whispered, wiping away his tears. "Don't start crying on me. You'll be all right. I'm here, I'm gonna help." Amy said. "Hold on to me; I'll carry you."

Sonic didn't want to, but, with no other choice, wrapped his arms around Amy's neck as she carried him out of the room. Even if it made Sonic feel out of place it was so warm and comfortable... soon he was happily complying with the idea of being carried, and no longer shed tears of frustration. As the two were heading down the stairs, however, Fliara nearly ran into them on her way up. A yelp was herd from the dragon as she stumbled in surprise and almost fell down the stairs, luckily Fliara was a trained gymnast and caught herself, tumbling down a few steps before falling down in a rather more reasonable fashion, on her tail instead of on her face. The plucky red dragon made an annoyed, bird-like squeal, but then looked up to see that Amy was carrying Sonic, and that Amy was happy, and that Sonic was breathing, and awake...

"Guys! Wake up!" Exclaimed Fliara. The heroes were suddenly wrested from their sleep at a cry of: "Sonic's alive!"

It took them a few minutes to absorb the shock at 5:10 in the morning, but soon they were all jumping up and down in- ... "Joy", I think the word is. They all took turns congratulating Sonic at not dying and were all very happy to have him back. Rouge volunteered to call up Shadow, (Which was a brave feat at 5:10 in the morning. ...It's SHADOW. It is EARLY. You do the math.) And Knuckles volunteered to start up some cool action movie for celebration. Fliara and Sonic had a long argument to whether the movie should be Dragon Heart or Fast & Furious. (I have only seen Dragon Heart, which I know Fliara would love, but I do not know what kind of movies Sonic would like, so that is my best guess.) After threats were made and dignities shattered, Alexi and Shadow showed up and insisted that they watch a horror movie. Boogeyman it was then. (Not exactly a good thing to watch when you plan on literally leaping into the jaws of fear that same day.) The situation with Dan-Chilack and the labyrinth was explained, but it was a little much for Sonic to take in so early in the morning. He got the gist of it, though.

"You made it, buddy! We couldn't be prouder!" Said Knuckles, the movie playing almost unnoticed in the background. Tails agreed.

"We thought you were a goner for sure!" The fox said. "You were so pale, and-"

"Tails." Said Amy symbolically, tightening her arms around Sonic. Tails understood, and kept quiet. Sonic was confused, but was soon interrupted by Fliara.

"You sure took a heavy dose of dark magic. You were knocked out all day. You beat the odds though. You and your dumb luck." Fliara joked, giving him a thumb's (Err... 'claws'?) up. Sonic laughed lightly to himself. A complement from Fliara...? Now that was weird.

"At a price, though... I- I can't walk." Said Sonic, still hardly able to believe it himself. Amy was still carrying him. She had refused to let go of him, and was cradling him in her arms like an infant. Sonic didn't mind, but he did get odd looks from Knux and Shadow. Fliara, in response to his words, shook her head.

"It won't last, Sonic, you'll be your old self in a couple of days... trusting that we beat Dan-Chilack." Fliara said. Tails smiled.

"You sound much more positive now. Do you finally think we'll win?" Tails said. Fliara chuckled.

"Victory is never a guarantee, but I think that Sonic's amazing comeback is a good omen. If you believe in omens."

"If it means an easier load, I'll take whatever omen I can get!" Chuckled Sonic. Fliara looked a little flustered, and she gave the blue hedgehog an annoyed scowl.

"Good omens don't make the task any easier, Sonic. We're still going to have to give our best. Well, that is, except for you." Said Fliara, picking at the wood floor again.

"Please, Fliara, stop that." Said Amy, not fond of Fliara's habit.

"Sorry." Apologized the dragon, ceasing her attempts to ease her boredom. Sonic was confused. He sat up, moving out of Amy's arms, kind of angry.

"What do you mean I don't have to give my best?" He asked, his quills standing on end. (_The defensive spines of the male hedgehog often will not be very dangerous unless the hedgehog in question is surprised, excited or agitated, at which his spines will stiffen and become more harmful. Often this ability will be accidentally triggered by affection from his mate, which to some extent can excite the male. _From the documentary of Brad McflukeSonic felt like he was ready for one of his arguments with Fliara now.

"What do- ...You didn't actually think you were coming to the labyrinth did you?" Asked Fliara, chuckling to herself. "Not in your condition, spike-butt."

"You mean that you were going to leave me here while everyone else had all the fun!" Sonic accused. Fliara glared.

"Fighting Dan-Chilack is not fun, Sonic!" Fliara scolded. "We could die! This is not a game! This is not one of your foolish spats with that pathetic Eggman; this is the man who invented fear himself!"

"I- I'm not afraid of him!" Sonic protested, immediately embarrassed at the shakiness of his voice. It was fairly obvious he was lying. Fliara glared.

"Well you're pretty afraid of his minions; you should have seen yourself cry! Like a baby!"

Sonic flinched away from her words; they hurt. But they were true. Fliara glared, and was about to say something else, when Amy and Knuckles intervened.

"Cut it out!" Snapped Knuckles and Amy at the same time. Amy seized Sonic in her arms and pulled him back to where he originally was, (Even as Sonic struggled to sit up again.) and Fliara got such a glare from knuckles that she promptly shut up, but grumbled something about a 'egomaniac spike-for brains' and glared into space.

"Now if you two can't carry on a discussion for more than three sentences without shouting, don't start one at all."

"Pathetic, overconfident, warthog." Mumbled Fliara.

"Fliara!" Shouted everyone in return.

"I wasn't shouting!" Fliara protested, but soon got smacked in the back of the head by her big brother. Fliara glared, and stood up, leaving the room, grumbling about inflated shallow bastards all the way.

Sonic glared after her but was surprised to find that the argument had been exceptionally draining. He collapsed back into Amy's arms, exhausted.

"Don't get so excited, Sonic. You're still weak. You need rest." Scolded Amy. Sonic shrugged as if to say that it wasn't his fault, but was soon cut off by knuckles.

"I'm sorry about sis. She gets like that sometimes." The echidna tried to manage a chuckle, but it wasn't very convincing. "Will you two ever get along?"

"Not in a hundred years!" Declared Sonic, leaning comfortably into Amy's embrace. The blue hedgehog looked around. "So... Fliara said that I'm not coming... is that true?" Sonic asked, trying to search his comrades' faces for evidence that the dragon was lying. Sonic cursed himself; that was impossible. Dragons can't consciously lie. They're always telling the truth, or at least they always think they are. Knuckles shifted his weight, and replied:

"Well, Sonic... you're still weak after the ordeal, and-"

"I can fight!" Sonic protested, attempting to sit up, but finding that it took a great deal of effort. He gave up, and collapsed back into Amy's arms. She gave him a hug.

"Don't be foolish. Just look at yourself, Sonic, you're exhausted already!" Amy said, stroking his quills. Sonic struggled away from her, or at least tried. It didn't work. He gave up; Amy was right. Suddenly, an alarming thought crossed Sonic's mind.

"Amy... y-you weren't going to leave me here... all alone, were you?" Sonic asked. Amy was a little taken back.

"No, Sonic! Never!" Amy hugged him fiercely. "Not with these ghosts after you, not in your condition!" Sonic sighed, and rested his head on her shoulder for a moment. He was tired.

"But you need eight people to attack the labyrinth. Without me, there's only seven. And if Amy stayed with me, there'd only be six. What did you plan to do, hire a hero or something?" Sonic argued, still leaning against Amy for support. Silence was heard from his friends.

"We didn't think of that." Answered Tails. Sonic grinned lightly.

"Then I guess I'm coming. Wait till snake-girl gets a load of that! She'll be furious!" The blue hedgehog laughed. Amy gave him a gentle glare.

"Yeah, like put rat poison in your toothpaste." Amy scolded. Sonic laughed.

"It wouldn't be the first time."

"Come on; let's get you back to bed. It's only six, and we don't leave to attack until noon." Amy said, picking Sonic up. He frowned.

"Aww, Ames, is it that important? I feel fine." Sonic lied, trying to repress a yawn. Amy smiled.

"You're not fooling me. You're as exhausted as I am." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Let's go. I'll keep you company."

Later. Maybe at Eight o clock? Something else? Something else? You decide.

Sonic bolted upright, giving a shout of surprise as he awakened from his nightmare. The blue hedgehog immediately fell into a fit of convulsive shudders, caused by the fear residing in his chest. Sonic held his shoulders in an attempt to try and stop his fearful trembling, but it wasn't working. He continued to shiver at the cold, feeling terribly helpless. Suddenly, Sonic realized that the cold didn't make any sense. (It was certainly not cold outside). Sonic was confused, but didn't bother thinking it over; the terror of the nightmare was still fresh in his mind and it was too hard to focus on anything else. He lay back down, still shivering, and turned to face Amy, who was still asleep. Sonic had actually thought of protesting to the idea of he and Amy sharing a bed, but now after the nightmare all doubts were gone and he gladly cuddled closer to her, and would be rather happy except for the nightmare he had recently suffered.

A few moments afterward, Sonic's shout had woken Amy up. At first the pink hedgehog was too groggy with sleep to wonder why he had shouted, and simply felt something cold and trembling pressed against her. Soon afterward calculating that it was Sonic, sleepily draped and arm over him, but still was too tired to wonder why he was scared.

Sonic soon woke Amy up entirely, using a few methods containing crying, pouting, and begging. Not classy, but effective. (That's the American way! -yes, I am American)

The pink hedgehog sat up, fully awake, and saw how Sonic was shivering. She immediately began to comfort him; smoothing his quills and letting him rest his head on her chest.

"Sonic? What's wrong?" Amy asked sleepily, still petting Sonic's quills. The blue hedgehog shuddered, but didn't respond. "Nightmare?"

"Yeah." Sonic answered quietly. Amy sighed, and gave him a hug.

"...I'm not feeling so great myself... Ugg, why am I so exhausted?"

"Cause you stayed up all night taking care of Sonic." Said Knuckles from the doorway. The two hedgehogs jumped; unaware he was there until now.

"How long have you been there?" Asked Amy, not removing her attention from Sonic. Knuckles chuckled.

"Since Sonic shouted. I came up to see what was wrong." Knuckles looked at the two hedgehogs, lying there together. He could make many cruel jokes right now but once he saw how Sonic was shivering he decided not to. "I was about to leave, too."

"Leave? Why?" Asked Amy. Knuckles sighed.

"Fliara's disappeared."

* * *

And there you have it; setting up the stage for a big dramatic scene before we enter the labyrinth, where there will be nearly NO happy scenes like the ones above until the end. Everything until then will be filed with misery and woe. Mm, ...woe. So, can you guess why Fliara's gone? If you can, then I'll be impressed! I also fit in a small amount of sonic torture, but it's nothing to shout about. Well, see you in chapter eight! 


	8. A oneleggedrabbit and a angry dragon

"Blood... I thirst for blood! I must write stuph that contains blood!"

"Calm down, komodo!" Shouts Shadow, soon hitting me in the head with a frying pan. I immediately fall down, unconscious. "Ugg... well, since komodo is acting so weird, I'll do the intro!"

"Over my dead body!"

Shadow hits me over the head again.

"Umm, you see, these are what komodo calls ONE-LEGGED-RABBIT chapters! ...She calls it that for two reasons. One; their usually sappy and adorable, two; they hop around in little, pointless, depressing circles and eventually fall over twitching while they can't get back up until they're hit by a car, at which their innards splatter all over the roa- ...Sorry. But, we FINALLY enter the labyrinth here, and there's some humorous action going on-"

"Whoot, action!"

"You're supposed to be incapacitated!" Shouted shadow, annoyed. I nod understandingly and again start to act... err... incapacitated. Whatever that means.

"Hey, Shadow, how can you use a word that I don't even know the meaning of if I'm writing this shi-"

"Silence! And there is also a dragon-emotional scene. One of those big, dramatic speeches they like so much. It will be enjoyed by all. She also has some Sonic misery in here. Yay."

"YAAAAY - don't eat the fish!"

"Shut up!"

* * *

Sonic, Amy and Tails sat down at the table, eating breakfast and listening to Knuckles, who had been talking non-stop all morning. You could tell the red echidna was worried about his sister. He was picking up all of the backpacks prepared for the labyrinth attack and distributing them amongst Rouge, Shadow and Alexi, keeping two for himself. The backpacks had a label on them depicting whom it was for. There wasn't one for Sonic, because Fliara thought that he wouldn't be coming. 

"Okay, I think I have a few ideas where Fliara could have gone." Knuckles said, handing out maps. "She's probably so mad at us because we always side with Sonic. ...Why am I so tough on her all the time!" The red echidna sighed heavily. Sonic scoffed under his breath, but Amy caught him and gave him a strict glare. He rolled his eyes. He could personally care less about the dragon.

"Don't feel bad, Knux. Maybe Fliara just went back home to get some stuff from her place or something." Rouge suggested. Knux shook his head.

"No way. Did you see how angry she was? Who knows where she is?"

Shadow took a step forward.

"Well it's not like Fliara to run out on a battle. She knows how important it is we beat Dan-Chilack, and it's almost noon. Maybe she's at the labyrinth." Shadow said. Knuckles shrugged.

"She knows we'd look there first. I don't think she wants to be found." Knuckles said. "She's really mad, guys. We better find her, before she does something rash." Knuckles almost laughed at himself. Fliara? Rash? That was an oxy-moron.

"Well it doesn't matter. We're going to drag that little reptile back here if we have to knock her unconscious!" Alexi snapped. Knuckles glared.

"You lay one finger on my sister and I'm gonna-"

"Knuckles! Fliara can take care of herself! She'll show up, she's just mad. We should go to the labyrinth." Said Rouge. The red echidna shook his head.

"Not a chance! We have to find her! She's the only one who knows about this black magic stuff. Without her, we might as well be trying to put out the sun." He lectured. Silence was heard form his friends, but they knew he was right. "So it's decided." Knuckles said, looking at his friends. "We go looking for Fliara."

"I want to go to! I know Fliara better than they do!" Tails said, pointing to Shadow and the others.

"You agreed to help and watch Sonic." Knuckles said. Sonic promptly sat up, insulted.

"H-Hey! I'm not some baby! I don't need-"

"Right, you're just a sixteen-year-old who can't walk." Said Alexi. Sonic glared.

"Seventeen." Argued Sonic, sinking back into his chair... "And it's not my fault."

"Just stop it!" Shouted Knuckles. Everyone froze. "We don't have any time to spare! We have to find Fliara and get to the labyrinth before the police try and go in there!" Shadow nodded.

"Who knows what could happen to them in there! The longer we take the more innocent people that could get hurt."

"Killed, Shadow, killed. Dan-Chilack isn't going to just 'hurt' people, you know." Alexi pointed out.

"Never mind. Let's go. We have to find her, fast."

The echidna, leopard, hedgehog and bat left, leaving the three youngest of the group behind. Sonic grumbled incoherently and poked at his breakfast with a fork; he had already eaten, but Amy insisted he have a large portion; he hadn't eaten anything yesterday. He _had_ been hungry, but talking about that damned lizard had gotten him all flustered, spoiling his appetite. He had never liked Fliara, ever since the day she showed up. She always had to be so wise and superior, so humble and perfect. Could she ever make a mistake? And she always thought that she was so much better than he was. She hated him back, because he was a hero and she wasn't. She was nothing but a jealous want-to-be.

"Sonic?" Amy asked, seeing how flustered he looked. "You aren't hungry?" The blue hedgehog looked up at her.

"No. Not right now." He answered, setting down his fork. He tried to stand up, forgetting about his weakness, and almost fell over. However, he quickly caught himself by grabbing the arm of the chair. He collapsed back into the chair, and was immediately depressed when he recalled that he couldn't move, shrinking back into his seat and staring sadly at the ground. Amy sighed in pity.

"You'll feel better later, Sonic. It's okay." Amy said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Sonic stared into space, not responding. An uncomfortable pause was heard throughout the room.

"I'll clear the table." Said Tails, picking up the plates and walking to the kitchen. Amy turned to the young kitsune in response

"Thank you, Tails." Answered Amy. She then stared down at Sonic, who seemed to be miserable and frustrated. She sighed. What could she do?

Suddenly, a thought came to her, and she smiled. The pink hedgehog snuck an arm around his waist and put another arm under his knees, picking him up and carrying him to the living room.

"H-hey! What are you doing?" Asked Sonic, nervous. Amy could feel his quickening pulse through his ribs, which were pressed into Amy's stomach as she carried the small blue hedgehog.

"You'll see." Answered Amy. "I think it will help."

* * *

"Oh where are you, Fliara?" Knuckles mumbled to himself, looking up and down the street as he ran through the town, looking for her. "Fliara!" The red echidna called, gazing around frantically. At no sight of her, Knuckles sighed and kept on moving, worrying about his sister. He raced down the barren roads, empty due to the hysteria of the labyrinth, and turned a corner, exiting the City Square. 

As he slowly disappeared from view, a small red dragon reappeared from her hiding place behind a rooftop air-vent, and made her way back to the edge of the one-story building she had been sitting on. The cold-blooded comrade sighed; she just couldn't face Knuckles now. She didn't feel like it. The red dragon was still mad, and might do something she would regret. Fliara resumed her perch on the side of the building and looked down at the civilians commuting the Town Square below her. The roads were empty, but people crowded the sidewalks and bartered at the food stands, their mumbling discussions lost in the background murmur of the city.

Fliara took out a slice of dried mango and munched away, whishing she could be as content with herself as the people below her. The dragon twirled the stick of dried fruit in her claws, sighing heavily.

They always took his side. Even her own family. Which was really only Knuckles and even he would always pick Sonic's side in an argument. If she couldn't trust her brother, who was there? The dragon took another bite of the fruit, trying to keep her thoughts clear. She couldn't think about Sonic now. Her thoughts wandered, back to her childhood, back to the time she spent with her big brother on Angel Island...

Fliara had never knew or seen her parents; Knuckles had no idea how her egg had shown up on the island. As far as he had told her, he just found it one day and that was that. No note, no message, no idea as to what she was doing there. Knuckles had this big theory that the master emerald had created her, and that she was some big, powerful creature, like chaos, that was going to be the stuff of legends one-day. Fliara used to believe that, but not anymore.

The dragon returned the fruit to her pocket, and looked back at Station Square, sighing at the sight. All the people, the beach, all the homes and trees and animals... Fliara started to wonder if it even mattered. Eventually, all of this would be gone, and no one would care that it ever existed. Even if Fliara was the strongest, wisest, most powerful hero in the world nothing can stop the fact that one day none of it would matter. She sighed. Did her efforts have eternal value or no value at all? Now that was a question that had been bugging her lately.

Fliara sighed and stood up, standing on the guardrail of the roof. She took a tall jump into the air and flapped along, trying to get these doubting thoughts out of her head. There wasn't much time before she was going to have to face them all anyway.

Knuckles moaned; he knew it was hopeless. Fliara was nearly invisible when she wanted to be, and even if she was found catching up to her was nearly impossible. Fliara had trained endlessly since she could walk to be strong and wise. She learned from mistakes. And had made them often- she was such a nosey little thing when she was little! She actually wandered into a porcupine den one time! Knuckles chuckled to himself. It had taken hours to get all of the quills out. If he wasn't mistaken, Fliara still had a scar from that event. He had been very worried about her, though. At the time, she had been no bigger than knuckles' hand!

Knuckles shook his head. Those days were over. Fliara wasn't a little kid anymore. She could take care of herself now. She really didn't need her big brother to tell her that she 'shouldn't fly so high up' or should 'be careful around sharp objects'. Knuckles sighed. Maybe she didn't need her big brother at all.

Suddenly, a streak of orange shot overhead, and Knuckles looked up, surprised. That had to be Fliara! He ran after the orange blur, eager to talk with his sister.

* * *

"I-I can't!" Protested Sonic from where he sat, looking up at Amy sadly. How could she expect this from him? 

"Come on, Sonic, just one little step, I'll catch you if you fall!" Amy said, as she stood in front of him, a couple of steps away. Sonic shook his head in disbelief.

Amy had carried him out to the City Park; "to get some fresh air" she had said. She had then walked to the center of the field, and placed Sonic in the grass, walking a few steps away from him and then asking him to try and walk towards her. Every time Sonic denied, and refused to move, after all, how could he? Sonic didn't understand Amy's intentions and didn't want to. Amy stared down at him, disappointed, feeling bad that he didn't even want to try. That wasn't like him. She sighed and picked him up, carrying him over to the side of the field. Sonic was relieved, thinking she was finally going to end this foolishness and take him back home. Well, back to her home anyway. Which really was the only home Sonic had now; the ghosts destroyed his last one. He might as well call Amy's house home. After all, She wasn't about to let him stay anywhere else; she was too worried about him right now. Sonic snuggled into her arms and waited, expecting her to carry him 'home'.

Instead, Amy set him on the bench, and took a few steps backward. Sonic moaned, and hung his head in his hands.

"Amy, you know I can't, and I know I can't! Would you just leave me alone?" He moped, staring at the distant tower of the labyrinth, standing like some alien meteorite far in the distance, rising above the surrounding skyscrapers. He shuddered, disliking the appearance of the building, even from far away, where it was nothing but a light blue silhouette in the distance. Sonic's thoughts were interrupted when Amy held her hand out an arm's reach from Sonic. The blue hedgehog starred at it quizzically.

"Just try, Sonic. Come on, I'll help you up." Amy offered. Sonic again refused. Amy leaned forward and grabbed Sonic's hand, pulling him to his feet. At first it looked like Sonic was going to fall but he caught himself, leaning into Amy's arm, slowly gaining balance. He still wobbled quite a bit, though.

"A-Amy!" Sonic protested, trying to go back to the bench.

"Oh no you don't. Just take one step, Sonic, that's all." Amy said. Sonic looked up at her, and gulped nervously.

"Just one?"

"Just one." Repeated Amy, as Sonic clung to her arm for support. Sonic sighed shakily, and gingerly lifted a foot, only to immediately place it back own again after nearly loosing his balance.

"I-I can't!"

"Calm down, Sonic. Just try." Amy said. Sonic sighed, took a deep breath, and quickly took a step towards Amy. At first he seemed okay, but he quickly fell after ward, Amy catching him. Sonic instantly moaned and pushed Amy away, sitting down in the grass.

"I told you I couldn't!" He protested sadly. Amy sighed and slowly draped her arms over his shoulders, feeling guilty and at the same time disappointed in Sonic. Not that he hadn't been able to, but that he didn't want to try...

"We could try something easier." She suggested, shrugging. Sonic groaned in frustration and leaned into Amy, exhausted.

"What's the use? I can't walk." He grumbled, angry. Amy sighed in pity and gave him a firm hug. Sonic gladly cuddled into her embrace; after all, it wasn't _her_ he was mad at.

"Then we can go home. Just one last thing I want to try." Amy said, standing up, and lifting Sonic up with her. Sonic's feet remained on the ground, but Amy's arm supported him by his waist, while his arm dangled over her shoulder, and the other fell at his side. He glanced up at her, confused. "Just take a couple of steps. I'm practically carrying you; it'll be easy." She said. Sonic looked up at her doubtingly, but managed to take a couple of steps without having to struggle for balance. Amy was actually holding him up and all he had to do was move, but Sonic felt better anyway; he was actually making progress. As he kept taking the small steps, Amy slowly removed her arm from his side, giving him less and less support. Sonic didn't seem to notice and was eventually taking some small steps entirely by himself, but once he realized that Amy had let go, he panicked. He stumbled over his own feet and fell over, Amy just barley catching him before he hit the ground. Sonic wrapped his arms around Amy's neck and buried his face into her shoulder, a tear of frustration falling down his cheek.

"I told you that I couldn't." The hedgehog said hoarsely. "I just want to go home, Amy. Can we please just go home?" He begged, exhausted and drained. Amy stared down in pity and disapproval. She was pushing him to do what he had begged to do; fight. She was giving him what he needed to heal and fight back. He had actually done it; he had walked for a few steps all by himself. But he didn't want to be pushed. He didn't want to work hard towards it. Amy was worried. It was as if he just wanted to withdraw into her arms for the rest of his life. Amy shook her head. No. That wasn't her Sonic.

Maybe Sonic did want to fight back, but... It was complicated.

Fliara liked challenges that would take a long time to solve, like storing up for winter or getting strong enough to lift a certain boulder on the mountainside or something.

Sonic disliked those challenges to hell and back; he wanted tasks that could be done right now. Difficulty wasn't a problem, but as long as it could be done _fast_. That's another reason Sonic hated training. It would always take so long to get better. He was content with how he was.

Fliara herself hated those small, fruitless tasks. That was another reason that the two never got along.

Amy sighed and hugged Sonic back, ruffling his quills. He squirmed at the odd, but stimulating sensation.

"Sonic, if you want to get better, you have to keep trying at this. You were doing great." Amy said, brushing and smoothing the now un-orderly quills. Sonic gave an odd noise of annoyance, somewhere between a groan and a whimper.

"No I wasn't. I just want to go home, Amy... can we please go? I'm ...I'm tired." The blue hedgehog complained. A yawn followed his sentence; and he snuggled into Amy's embrace, looking quite comfortable. His eyes closed and his breathing slowed as he began to drift off to sleep. Amy sighed, but smiled none the less. She wasn't going to get anything else out of him. She stood up, carrying him, and started back home. Maybe he did deserve to rest.

* * *

Knuckles slowed down a little, panting from exhaustion. He was so close to Fliara now that he could hear the familiar "flit-flit-flit" or her wings. How long was Fliara planning to fly up there? Sure, the dragon loved the sky but this was a little much, even for her. The red echidna looked to his wristwatch, seeing that it was 10:30. There wasn't a lot of time until they had to start heading to the labyrinth. This wasn't like Fliara at all. Knowing her she would be pacing back and forth, counting the minutes and training extra hard. She must be really mad. 

He shook his head and looked up to see that Fliara had no intention of slowing down. He took a deep breath and shouted to her.

"Fliara! Please come down!" Knuckles begged. Fliara's slipstream faltered as her wings twitched, but otherwise she didn't move. "Fliara!" He complained; jumping over a park bench he almost ran into. The dragon looked back at him, and apparently decided to stop. She swung her feet below her and spread her wings to catch the wind; flapping them a little to slow her decent even more, and eventually was hovering over the ground with small jerky movements of her wings. She then snapped her wings to her side and dropped to the ground, her knees absorbing the blow as they bent. It was her classic way of landing. A quicker method would be to land on the ground at full speed and begin to run.

Knuckles sighed as he caught up with her, and slowed to a walk, stopping just behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Fliara, what's gotten into you?" The echidna questioned, exhausted. Fliara was panting slightly as well. The dragon turned, her muscular tail swinging behind her; hugging close to her. Anything different and it might dismember people from the knees down, due to the freakishly sharp tail-spade. The dragon didn't look angry, but did look solemnly quiet as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, her claws resting on her elbows. Her bangs fell in strands in front of her hard, slate eyes, and she brushed Knuckles' hand off of her shoulder.

"You know the answer and I know you know the answer." Fliara answered, giving a brief, angry nod. Her wings twitched, something that only happened when she was angry, and her tail swished back and forth in the dirt with annoyance. Knuckles sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Hey, about what happened back there, with Sonic and everyone... I'm sorry if you think it was unfair but you were being kind of mea-"

"And he was being kind of stupid!" Fliara snapped, turning around and sitting down, the soles of her feet pressed together and her knees up by her shoulders. Her clawed hands rested on the ground. "Why do you guys always pick his side! You always agree! Even if you know he's wrong!" The dragon's wings shuddered; like a bird ruffling it's feathers in annoyance. "It makes me sick! Does he have that much of an influence that even when he's pathetic and injured-"

"Fliara! ...Sonic's my friend!"

"And I'm your sister!" Fliara argued eyes wide. "But apparently that doesn't mean anything, so why is 'friend' any better!" The reptilian looked away and set her feet on the ground, resting her elbows on her knees. Knuckles sat down next to her. He was, for a few seconds, out of words...

"Sis- ...listen, I don't like being the bad guy here. And I'm not the bad guy." Knuckles paused to let Fliara intrude if she wanted to. She didn't. Knux continued. "You're family, nothing's going to change that, and I will always be on your side. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna abandon my friends. I mean, you wouldn't be mean to Tails just because I didn't like him."

"Maybe if he was acting like an idiot and deserved it." Fliara grumbled. Knuckles moaned.

"You're not giving me a lot to go on here."

"I'm not trying to!" Fliara partially laughed. But it was not a laugh of joy. Knuckles sighed and looked up at her.

"What did Sonic do that was so wrong anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"He thinks this is going to be easy. He doesn't want to do any work. He doesn't realize that we are, more likely than not, going to die in there." Fliara said. "He's beyond overconfident, Knux. It's going to kill someone some day. I don't want it to be me, or you, or Tails, or Amy, or any of you guys!" Fliara said. "But one of these days he's going to make a mistake. And if he's not prepared for that... if he doesn't realize his own mortality... he could be putting thousand of needless lives, including his own, in danger. It's that foolishness, that... that... inconsiderate thoughtlessness... it makes me sick, Knux." Fliara said. The red echidna nodded, understanding.

"Well, maybe a certain blue hedgehog feels the same way about a certain red dragon." Knuckles sighed. Fliara turned to face him, eyebrow raised in question.

"What do you mean?" She asked, curious. "I'm nothing like him." Knuckles laughed.

"He constantly complains on how you always have to be so perfect and humble and rub it in all the time. He doesn't like how you're always right. He thinks that you're too confident that you'll always be right."

"Me! Overcon- ...no!" Fliara stammered angrily. Her wings twitched in annoyance. Knuckles laughed, and patted her on the shoulder.

"It's not that bad. You're really good at staying focused and knowing the severity of the situation- you're not overconfident. But you do kind of like to carry a superior air wherever you go. It drives him crazy."

"Well he drives me crazy with his carelessness. He has no acceptance for responsibility."

"And you have no acceptance for making mistakes. You beat yourself up, and other people, over it too much, Fliara." Knuckles sighed. "At least... what I'm trying to say is that everyone's got their faults, Sis, some more than others have. But there's a good side to everything. You just got to look for it. Not everything is all holes and errors, and you have to nurture what's right and edit what's wrong, gently, without changing who they are. Fliara, if you could just wish away Sonic's faults, you'd break him. He wouldn't be our Sonic anymore. If Sonic could wish away your faults, you wouldn't be my little sister anymore. I don't want to loose either of my two best friends." Knuckles said, giving her a friendly punch in the shoulder. "Sonic will never be more important to us than you and neither will you be more important to us than him, everyone's equal. You're both people and nothing either of you say about each other is going to change that. Sonic was just hurt; we didn't want you to hurt him anymore. And maybe sometimes we give Sonic more credit and you not enough, but it's just a habit, one we'll try to change. He's been around longer. But you're still important, Fliara. We love ya like crazy. After all, what would our lives be like without our hyperactive little red dragon?" Knuckles asked, playfully shoving her. Fliara had to smile.

"You don't mean that."

"Sure as hell I do! Now get your tail back over to Amy's house so we can get ready for the labyrinth." Knuckles said. Fliara stood up, happier on the inside than she'd been since eating four cups of noodles straight. (Cup-a-noodles noodles. See _Legata's adventures in Tri-gun land_) She grinned up at her big brother.

"Sure thing! As a matter of fact..." the dragon said, beginning to walk down the path.

"...I'll race ya!" Fliara said, beginning to run. Knuckles shouted in protest.

"Hey! No fair! Get back here, you had a head start!" Laughed Knuckles. The two raced and laughed back to Amy's, not unlike the old times they spent on Angel Island, growing up together.

* * *

1..., 2..., 3... 

Aww!

All these emotional sibling moments! How did I write this crap? It's like signs all over again!

Notice the word SIBLING. Those of you who are thinking about Flinux, it because you CRAZY AND SICK-MINDED! They are brother/sister. You say otherwise, I eat your spleen. Oh, and by the way, no chapter break for you. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; THIS CHAPTER IS INSANELY LONG! Well it is! ...And it's a one-legged rabbit.

* * *

Amy walked through the door, closing it quietly behind her. However it was a difficult task, considering she kind of had her hands full. 

She was still carrying Sonic, who had refused to try and walk by himself ever since the incident at the park, and had fallen asleep halfway back home. He was overall acting kind of pathetic and it was starting to worry Amy; Fliara had said that the ghosts would hurt Sonic both physically and mentally but Amy hadn't wanted to believe it.

She gently lay Sonic down on the couch; not bothering with a blanket because it was practically noon and it was plenty warm outside. Amy then walked through the living room to the kitchen, to see Tails making a tuna sandwich. The yellow fox turned to her, surprised.

"Hi, Amy. Where'd you take Sonic?" Tails asked, unknowing of Amy's efforts to get Sonic to walk. The pink hedgehog shook her head.

"To the park. I was trying to get Sonic to practice walking, but..." Amy paused, and looked away. "He was doing fine for a second, but once he realized that I wasn't carrying him anymore... " Amy trailed off.

"He froze up?" Estimated Tails, spreading some mayonnaise on the bread.

"Exactly." Amy answered. She walked to one of the wooden chairs by the kitchen table and sat down. "I know that we have to bring him to the labyrinth, and that I'll be there to take care of him, but... " Amy shook her head. "He's just so weak right now. I don't think he could stand it in there. From what Fliara's said, it sounds awful. It could tear him to pieces." She looked up at Tails. "I don't want anything to happen to him. He needs rest. He needs to heal, to get better. And if I take him to the labyrinth, he might not have time to do that. He might be scarred for life; he would never be my Sonic again." Amy rested her head in her hands. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Tails paused from his sandwich and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Sonic may be weak now, but he's still our Sonic. And nothing can ever-"

"AAAAAAAAH!" A scream interrupted Tail's sentence, and the two promptly stood up and ran to the living room, knowing instantly that it was Sonic.

The little blue hedgehog was sitting upright, shivering, and looking absolutely terrified. Amy ran to him, and took him up in her arms, stroking his spines affectionately. Sonic looked around, quite scared.

"Nightmare?" Asked Tails. "Again?" Sonic nodded quietly but otherwise remained in Amy's arms. "This is bad. I can tell. He's practically having these nightmares ever time he falls asleep. That can't be a good sign."

"I know, I know." Replied Amy, a little too preoccupied comforting Sonic, who seemed no more interested in Tails' words than the sofa. The little blue hedgehog clung to Amy; after the nightmares and the attacks and the pain it was as if she was the only good thing in the world. He was a little too frightened to think of giving his other friends credit at the time.

"Maybe he should eat something." Suggested Tails. "It could help him get some of his strength back."

"Unless it can make the nightmares go away; I don't want it." Answered Sonic quietly, burrowing his face into Amy's shoulder. She stared down at him for a second. The pink hedgehog put a finger under Sonic's chin and forced him to look up at her.

"Only you can do that, my Sonikku." (ACK! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I USED THAT WORD! HOLY CRAP!) Amy gave him a quick kiss. "I can't fight all of your battles. You have to keep trying to walk and keep trying to ignore the fear. Then the monsters will leave your dreams. I promise. But I can't do it for you." She partially laughed. Sonic frowned. He didn't see anything funny. He squirmed inside her embrace, uncomfortable.

"Are you sure?" Sonic asked.

"Absolutely." Answered Amy

"Sandwiches are done!" Called Tails from the kitchen (how'd he get over there so fast?)

"I FOUND FLIARA!" Shouted Knuckles, bursting through the door, panting heavily. A happy red dragon followed him.

"No fair, Knux, you cheated! You only won because you took that short cut!" Fliara complained, giving Knux a friendly punch in the shoulder.

Sonic looked from Amy, to Tails, (who again had magically appeared for no reason) to Knuckles, to Fliara, then to Rouge, Alexi, and Shadow. (who I've decided are here. Yeah. I'm lazy)

"So-"

* * *

And then the authoress got so bored with the emotional crap she'd been writing for the past week that she skipped scene 23 entirely and went straight on to the sight of the labyrinth. After all, she had lots of barnacle cuts on her palms for when she fell into the ocean and typing hurt. Ow.

* * *

"So that's the labyrinth?" (REALLY crappy way to start out the scene) said Knuckles, gaping at the building before him. Similar amazement was given from the rest of the group.

The outer stone wall of the labyrinth was huge, black and ominous, looming tall over the surrounding one-story buildings and making the beanpole skyscrapers look silly in comparison to the buildings sheer bulk. The small furry heroes could not see all of it, the wall tore and hid through half-destroyed buildings and eventually disappeared in the distance. A gargantuan, spindly tower stretched from the center of the building into the sky, disappearing into the clouds, making the skyscrapers look small.

"Think about it; that hunk of rock is just one part of a square-kilometer circular building, all jam-packed with demons and evil and endless corridors." Said Shadow, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"Did your homework, eh?" Mocked Alexi. Shadow shrugged.

"Along the lines, yes."

Sonic seemed uncertain, and backed away from the huge black building, looming in the distance. It was at least 20 meters away.

"Oh, Sonic, don't go getting cold feet now." Said Tails, turning to his hedgehog friend, who was leaning into Amy for support; he still couldn't walk on his own but he could at least carry some of his own weight.

"I- I'm just a little nervous."

"After al the fuss you made about getting left behind!" Accused Shadow. Sonic shrunk into Amy's arms, embarrassed.

"I-"

"It's okay to be afraid. Fear is also one of the most useful things in the world. It lets you know when to take something seriously. As long as you don't let your fear control you, you are brave. That is bravery, conquering your fears, not ignoring them." Said Fliara. Everyone froze. That was a little mature fro Fliara. And not only that, she defended Sonic. Fliara winked, her claws forming into a makeshift thumb's up. "Now, with that lesson learned, let's go kick some serious demon but!"

The surrounding heroes gave out a cheer, (except for Alexi) and followed, walking towards the police-car barriers and Do-not-cross tape. Suddenly, an angry-looking fox jumped in their way, holding up a F.B.I. badge.

"Just what do you think you're doing? This is a restricted area! Unless you can show me some identification, I aught-a arrest you!" Snapped the red fox, tapping his foot impatiently. Fliara ignored him, and looked beyond him at the gaping, cave-like entrance to the labyrinth.

"How many people have gone in there?" Fliara asked. The F.B.I. agent was a little taken back.

"I said show me some identification!"

"Would this do?" Said Fliara, stepping aside to show the agent the better known heroes. He took a step back.

"...Okay, okay, I know who you are. But why are you here? This is still a restricted area; you can't go in here without a permit!"

"I'll show you my permit you little" began knuckles, holding up a fist. Rouge elbowed him in the stomach and smacked his fist down.

"Keep your temper!" She scolded. But still, the fox was starting to get on everyone's nerves.

"I said, how many people have gone in there?" Asked Fliara, not liking to be ignored. The agent looked at her.

"Like five. But that doesn't change the fact tha-

"Let's hurry." Said Fliara, walking towards the building. The F.B.I agent jumped in front of her.

"What do you think you're doing? Go back home! We have the situation under control, an-"

The agent was soon silenced with a quick boot-to-the-head from Rouge. He went into a gleeful spat of giggling, then fell to the ground, twitching slowly. Rouge kicked him again for good measure.

"That was SO annoying..." Rogue shuddered, stepping over the unconscious guard. They were lucky that the other policemen didn't see them. The group followed Rogue and Fliara, crossing over the barriers (Sonic needed Amy's help.) and walking over the hard pavement. Knuckles jogged up to Rouge's side, grinning jokingly at her.

"Hold you're temper, eh?'

"Oh, be quiet."

The team entered the labyrinth through its huge, intricate entrance, with gargoyles watching over them and snakes coiled around the pillars. Sonic felt a shudder pass through his body as he entered the building, and had the oddest feeling eh was being watched. He turned around and looked outside. He didn't see anything unusual.

"Sonic, do you want me to carry you again?" Asked Amy, noticing that he had stopped his new habit of leaning into her, Amy supporting his weight, while he would trod along rather successfully. Sonic looked over at her.

"No, I 'm okay." He said, cuddling into her supportive embrace. He stared once again at the exit, which slowly disappeared from view after the group took a turn deeper into the labyrinth. The sky could no longer be seen.

And it was terribly dark.

* * *

DUN! DUN! DUN! Yep, that's the chapter. Review. Now. I want reviews from BehindtheShadow, leve, Isu, Ri2, phantom, Angel, amberspike, Samantha27, Spadehand, Ted, electragirl and Nick. I'm not kidding. Stop laughing at me. That's everone who's still reading, that's who I expect to review! But I don't know what happened to Spade, Sam, Nick, Ted and Electragirl. They're like... gone... 


	9. It's raining blood, that's bad, right?

Err... I'm sorry it took so long, but I've had terrible writer's block and then WordPad was being stupid. This is the fifth time I've had trouble with that 'temporary' folder. I wonder why it's so messed up? Any way, I prevailed over computer problems. Yay. Here it is.

"It's so dark in here... Fliara, give us some light!" Declared Knuckles, stumbling blindly along the dark, cold corridors.

"I'm way ahead of you, bro." Fliara said as her hands erupted into flame. The fire instantly illuminated the long, stone hallway, bringing countless details to life under the soft glow of Fliara's enflamed claws. The surrounding heroes gave amused murmurs at the sight they beheld before them.

An endlessly long, black hallway stretched before them, unlit torches dotting the walls. Rouge looked up, but the ceiling was too far away to see; it eventually melted into blackness once the light of Fliara's fire dwindled and vanished due to the distance. The stones were cut into odd and un-patterned shapes, but fit together with the modern methods of a cement-like structure. They immediately took into notice that the hallway was narrow, only three of them could stand side by side and fit through, but it was obviously a very deep pathway. Fliara had the odd feeling that it was sloping up and down, trying to knock its travelers out of their sense of direction. The dragon grinned. She wasn't going to be fooled by a little elevation difference.

"Well... " Began Rouge, who eventually found herself at a lack of words.

"It's big?" Suggested Sonic, still leaning into Amy' protective embrace. Rouge turned around and nodded.

"Yes, exactly, it's very big." Said Rouge.

"And we're going to walk through every bit of it." Moaned Shadow, shaking his head in doubt. "If this thing's a square kilometer in size, just imagine the length of the tunnels inside of it!" Shadow gave and exasperated moan, and threw his hands in the air. "This is sure going to take a long time!" Alexi chuckled.

"Good. Maybe you guys will get exhausted and the ghosts will eat you. I could use some entertainment." The leopard laughed cruelly. Shadow glared.

"Stop joking. It's not funny, you know." The black hedgehog said, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"I wasn't." Sneered Alexi, grinning like a skeleton. Shadow shuddered at her evil grin as she walked past him. Fliara followed.

"She's got the right idea, you know. We better head out now. We don't want to stand still for too long during the day. The police that went in here could need our help and besides the demon-guards are more active when the sun's up." The dragon explained. The rest of the group shrugged, but followed, Sonic limping along as he leaned into Amy.

The group had been walking down the forbidding hallway for what seemed like ages now, their footsteps echoing in the dreary hall. Sonic was sticking close to his pink protector, hungry for both her warmth and her protection, but mostly just for the splendid feeling of security he achieved every time he was close to her. It was very cold in the dark hallway, and many of the heroes were shivering or obviously trying to hide their discomfort; all except Alexi, who, being a snow-leopard, had such efficient fur that it did not affect her for a moment.

Fliara, however, was much worse off. She was a dragon, which meant she was cold-blooded. And, despite popular normie belief, (I _hate_ normies... _hate them so much_... they're so... _normal_.) Cold-blooded does not mean that you can survive cold.

"Are you feeling okay, sis?" Asked knuckles, noticing how Fliara shivered. The dragon shook her head.

"I don't know. I had no idea it would be _this_ cold." Fliara said. Knuckles looked to his pack.

"Did you pack blankets?"

"Of course! But they don't do me any good, Knux. Remember that I'm cold-blooded. I don't produce my own body heat." Fliara said. Tails looked up at his dragon-ish friend.

"Doesn't the fire on your hands keep you warm?"

"No, Tails. That takes more energy than it puts in." Fliara explained. "I think I packed an electric blanket. That makes it's own heat." Fliara said, digging through her pack. She took out the electric blanket, turned it on, and draped it over her wings and back. Her shivering soon ceased. Knuckles sighed in relief.

"What kind of stuph did you pack in here?" Knuckles asked, looking at the packs. Amy was carrying Sonic's pack. ...Why does he have one when Fliara never made him one, you ask? She made it in scene 23. So There.

"Blankets, food, water, talismans, an electric heater, batteries, matches, tin foil, -"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But why the heater and matches and stuph. We have you for that." Knuckles said. Fliara shook her head.

"Unless I'm the last person to face my fear, I won't be here for part of the journey. "I'll either be at the gate, keeping it open, or trapped by Dan-Chilack if I fail." Fliara explained. Shadow jogged up next to them.

"So who's going first?" Shadow asked. Fliara looked around at her comrades, trying to make a conclusion.

"We could pick Sonic, so he wouldn't have to face the inner labyrinth's dangers, but then he would be separated from Amy. That would be very bad. The ghosts would get him." Said Fliara, scratching the back of her head with a still lit claw. She _was_ fireproof but it didn't stop the other heroes from jumping a little.

"I think Alexi should go first." Shadow said. Alexi turned and glared at him. Shadow, to everyone's surprise, blushed and looked away. Alexi turned to him and glared.

"I'll speak for myself, thank you very much. And I'm sick of your antics. I am going as far as I can through this maze, until I come across a monster with enough power to kill the 'invincible'" The leopard growled, giving Shadow a push. Shadow looked back up at her, slightly angry.

"Alexi... " Shadow began, but she turned away before he could say anything, storming off down the tunnel. Shadow decided to drop the subject, and followed as Alexi and the rest of the group walked down the dark, forbidding halls...

The group continued to chat, trying to decide who would go first, when suddenly, Rouge stopped in her tracks, ears twitching. Everyone fell silent. The fabled gem-thief looked to the tall ceiling, apparently searching for something. Sonic swallowed nervously. Did she hear something? Ws it a threat? Was it one of the policemen? Was it simply a strange echo of one of their voices...? The little blue hedgehog, realizing his own mortality in this situation, pressed his muzzle into Amy's quills, not wanting to see what horrendous beast that Rouge might be hearing. Amy comforted him.

Knuckles walked up to the white bat, concerned that she might be hearing something of importance.

"What is it, Rouge?" He asked quietly. The bat shook her head, and continued to stare upwards.

"I think there's something up there." She said. Fliara walked in front of them.

"Like what?" The dragon asked, tail swishing behind her. The flames licked around her claws, still lighting up the area, but not up to where the ceiling was, not up to where the noises that Rouge was hearing were coming from.

"I'm sure I don't know, Fliara, but it's definitely there." She mused, her eyes darting around the darkness overhead.

Suddenly, the sounds that Rouge had heard escalated and grew, evolving from inaudible clicks and murmurs to sickening screeches. The surrounding heroes immediately went into battle stance, even Sonic, (it had grown into a habit for him over time. However, in his weakness, he stumbled.) As they heard strange, unearthly noises from the ceiling... small clinks and clacks, unorthodox slurps, and a strange and unpredicted snapping. Fliara sprung into flight, hovering above the ground. Knuckles stared up at her, bewildered.

"Fliara! What do you think you're doing?" Scolded Knuckles, glaring. "You say it all the time yourself; never run into an enemy you can't see!" The red echidna lectured, his battle position faltering. Sonic shivered. Amy held him tighter.

"I'm not going to... I'm just curious." Fliara said, not moving from her place in the air, a foot above their heads.

"Curiosity killed the dragon! Now get down here!" Knuckles whispered, for the odd noises had grown louder. There was a sickening crunch, no one had any idea what that was, and then an odd, dripping noise from a few meters off. Fliara dropped silently to the ground and looked around. An unsaid agreement was formed, and Knuckles slowly walked towards the noise to investigate, not wanting to draw attention to whatever was up there, and saw a pool of liquid, fed by a steady drip from above. He wordlessly put his glove into the viscous fluid, rubbing it between his finger and thumb. Then, Knuckles stopped cold, backed away from the liquid, and shuddered. Sonic dared his face to venture from Amy's shoulder and looked over at the dumbfounded knuckles.

"What is it?"

Knuckles swallowed nervously, and looked back to the ceiling. He slowly turned to his comrades and whispered hoarsely:

"Blood."

A deafening, beastly scream tore through the room and something quite large fell from the ceiling, landing on top of Fliara. The dragon gave a shout of anger and surprise, however the flame on her hands went out and left the rest of the group in darkness before the attacker could be seen. The heroes went into a state of panic, and of course Sonic was no better off. Knuckles was calling for Fliara, who did not respond, and repetitive screeches and clacks were heard from above, overall sending the heroes into utter confusion. Shadow shook his head to clear out the confusion, and tried to get a grip on the situation. Flattening his ears to his head, (to block out the unnecessary noise) he stuck a hand out to his right, satisfied to feel Alexi's arm underneath the glove. To his left was Rouge, and behind him was Tails, Sonic and Amy, for he could hear them shouting. Knuckles was in front of him. That was almost everyone. _But where was Fliara_?

"Fliara!" Knuckles called again, blindly stumbling through the hall. He heard a thud, another beastly scream, loud, but fading clicks, and then silence.

Dead silence.

"Fliara!" Knuckles shouted into the dark, looking around. He accidentally backed into Rouge, who gave him a slight push as retaliation, but was not mad. Suddenly, two large circles of flame danced into life, shattering the darkness. The heroes turned, and were shocked at what they saw. Fliara stood there, wings sagging, her entire front covered in blood. Knuckles shouted in worry, and ran to his little sister, but before he could lay a hand on her she held up a flaming claw, stopping him.

"It's not mine." Fliara said. "The blood- it's not mine." The dragon shook her head, and her claw fell to her side, the flames licking up her thigh but doing no damage to her clothing or her skin. She looked at the ground, seemingly drained.

"Then whose is it?" Asked Rouge. Fliara looked up from the ground, and pointed behind her, wordless.

A corpse, it's rib cage ripped open and it's intestines strewn across the floor, lay in a deepening pool of blood, the skin of it's face torn off and the eyeballs gone. Nothing remained but muscle and blood... so much blood... (Yay! ... I am so messed up.)

Sonic managed a bleak cry and buried his face into Amy's shoulder. He couldn't stand the sight of blood. It made him feel sick and reasonless guilty. Amy averted her eyes from the ghastly sight, and wrapped her arms around Sonic, who, to her amazement, did not tremble.

Tails, eyes wide, backed away slowly, terror eating him from the inside out.

"...What-... what could do something like that..." Rouge stammered, staring down at the corpse, shocked. "That's inhuman."

"It wasn't human, Rouge." Muttered Shadow, remembering the demons he had read about in the book. "And whatever it was... it's still out there."

Fliara, coated in the corpse's blood, (from when it fell on her.) picked up her pack and looked towards the rest of the labyrinth. Knuckles took a step towards her.

"W-we should keep moving. There's nothing more we can do for those that lost their lives here. We cannot wait for the same thing to happen to us." She explained, turning to her friends. "I think tha-"

Her sentence came to a halt as Tails promptly turned around and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the stone floor, shuddering and sobbing. Fliara ran up and patted her kitsune comrade on the back. Alexi laughed, walking over to the corpse and kicking it violently.

"You think this is bad? I've done worse than this." The blue leopard hissed, bending down towards the corpse. Suddenly, Alexi was silenced, and she stared down at the corpse, confused. Shadow walked up to her.

"What? Do you notice something?" Shadow asked. Alexi nodded.

"Look, these here are definitely claw wounds. Big ones. But the noises we heard were for spider-legs. And here are some puncture wounds." Alexi mused, poking around the corpse. No one had much interest.

"S-so what are you saying?" Asked Sonic, unnerved.

"I'm saying that this thing is a spider- with big claws." Alexi explained sarcastically. Knuckles scoffed lightly, but didn't seem too confident in his protest.

"There's no such thing." The red echidna argued. Alexi laughed, and it was a terrible noise, Alexi laughing. It was a dark sound, one that echoed through the halls and sent shivers down their spines.

"Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it can't kill you. Take it from me." Alexi said, holding out her bloody palms. "Too many times have these hands been stained with the blood of people who thought that I didn't exist."

"Alexi- ...there are children present." Shadow intruded, gesturing towards Tails. Alexi laughed maniacally again, then turned to Shadow.

"Good. They have much to learn." The leopard explained. Then, without a word, the entire group decided to keep moving, knowing that the corpse was only one of many terrors to come and the next one could be just around the corner.

YAY! BLOOD! FINALLY! And, yes, this chapter DID serve the plot, if you're wondering. This chapter _was_ kind of dark, but that's a good thing, right? It's supposed to be really creepy and stuph, and, yes, Alexi is weird. (Grins) So, next chapter, someone in the group will attempt to open the first gate. Who will it be? What will be their worst fear? What was that spider-thing-with-claws and when will it return? Why is Alexi so messed up? All these questions and more will be answered on the next episode of DRAGON BALL Z! ...I mean _Fear_.


	10. Thunder

Yay! I'm back! About time that I stopped being lazy! However, I was moving into my grandparent's place for two weeks, so that I could be closer to this summer-technology-thing. I'm going to learn 3-D animation! Yay! No more walk cycles for me! This might make updating slow for the next few days, but, on the bright side, I'll have more time to type now that I will have less responsibility around the homestead.

**Isu- Wow, I didn't know that! Heh heh... I guess that's for the Archie/comic/thing universe, though. Mine's for the games and stuff, and I decided his worst fear was blood, (along with water) But thanks for the info, I'll make sure to keep that in mind when I write the end. Thanks for the review! And I like Alexi's quotes as well! **

Sonikku1402: Wow! A 10/10! I'm impressed with myself! Ha... looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that Sonic is a better character as a wimp! (Laughs)

**Levee: (Sighs in relief) for a second I thought I was only going to get two reviews for this chapter ...yeah, I know Sonic is still alive. Maybe I'll kill him off at the end. I don't know. Thanks for being a dedicated reader! Yay! Everybody loves me! I am so great! I am so great! Everybody loves me! I am so great! **

**Sonic: She's doing it again! **

**Shadow: I'll just go grab the tranquilizer... **

Amberspike: X l ...I feel bad that I haven't responded to your review yet. Thank you! I'm very glad that you enjoyed the story! Not everyone stands up and applauds these days, you know. That must mean I did something right.

**Behind the Shadow: Err... goose pimples, eh? ...Well, I guess that's a good thing! Heh heh! I wonder if chapter nine was as scary as I wanted it to be.**

ElectraGirl: Thank you for the review! Busy, Eh? I understand.

(Many people have argued that Amy does tarot cards, and Fliara's character serves no purpose. My story takes place in the Sega universe. Amy, in the comics, does tarot cards, and Sonic is afraid of spiders in the comics, but mine's for the Sega universe. I hope this clears up confusion.)

-To readers of 'umm...' I'm sincerely, mostly, ultimately, deeply, unfathomablely sorry for the update delay. I'm kind of getting stuck... I wrote the next scene, but it just didn't turn out like I wanted it to. Doesn't that ever happen to you? I think I'll have up next chapter sooner than not.

* * *

Tails felt his stomach again flop with queasiness and his walking slowed, only to eventually return to his normal pace once he was feeling better. The sight of that policeman had been a little too much for the kid. He shook his head and tried to drive out the images of blood and gore from his mind, but it wasn't working. Tails sighed. He was sure going to have nightmares tonight. Fliara noticed that he was lagging, and turned to her friend, Tails.

The yellow fox had quickly befriended Fliara, and the two became almost as inseparable as Sonic and Tails after the events in L.O.T.E.D. The yellow fox had often had to put up between the rival's complaints about each other, and had served as a peacemaker for the red dragon and blue hedgehog. Because Fliara would migrate to Africa's northern desert once fall started taking it's toll on the temperature, Tails found himself spending more time with Fliara in the summer than Sonic. Sonic he could see year-round, but Fliara was only around for two seasons.

"What's wrong, kid?" she asked, drawing the attention of the other heroes. Tails shuddered.

"I-I'm fine. But that scenario back there was a little more than I could handle." He said. "I'll be fine." The yellow fox said. Most of the group kept walking, thinking that was it, but Sonic, Amy and Fliara knew the problem was a little bigger than that.

They were right. Tails really didn't like this place. The darkness, the cold, the echoes and noises... everything was wrong! And the event they had just beheld was nothing compared to the trials and circumstances before them. Tails didn't want to go through that. He knew it wasn't the strongest or bravest outlook, but it was the only one he had.

Suddenly, Fliara slowed to a halt, and looked around.

"Is something wrong again?" Asked Knuckles, a tone of dread in his voice. Fliara scoffed lightly, and smiled.

"No. We're nearing the first gate. It should be past this turn, coming up." Fliara said, looking to the right wall in front of them. A cavernous opening in the wall allowed access to another corridor, one parallel to this one. The corridor they were in went on for a few meters, then stopped abruptly at a sheer rock edge. "We go in, and to our right is a gate, to our left is another passageway. If we take the left, we're still going deeper into the temple, but if we manage to open the gate, we can get to the center quicker." She explained. "We need to try and go through the gate, we can't waste any time for the sake of the people trapped in the labyrinth. Now, we have to decide... who's going first?" the red dragon asked. Nervous glances were exchanged between the heroes; no one wanted to go through the terror described in the books. Their worst fear was also their greatest weakness.

"I'll go." Said Tails, taking a step forward. A few gasped, turning towards Tails. Fliara grinned and walked up to the yellow fox, giving him a clawed high-five.

"That's our bud Tails! Keep a cool head, remember that it can't hurt you, and you'll be fine." Fliara said. "The black magic in the gate can not hurt you, unless you let it. Just believe that it can't, then it can't!" The dragon gave him a thumb's-up. "You ready, bud?" she asked, resting a clawed hand on her hip and her wings fluttering. Tails smiled.

"Absolutely." the fox said. Sonic took a small step away from Amy, and asked:

"Hey, Tails, by the way... what's your worst fear? You might want to know what you're going up against." The blue hedgehog suggested. Tails sighed.

"...Thunder. I can't stand it." The kitten admitted, shuddering. Rouge laughed.

"Don't feel bad, kid! When I was little, I was afraid of thunder myself." Rouge said. She pointed to her ears. "It was even louder with these. Being a bat isn't easy." She laughed. Knuckles and the others laughed as well. Fliara was the first to be silenced. She looked over to Tails.

"Are you ready?"

"Sure thing!" answered Tails.

* * *

Seconds after the talk, they came upon the long anticipated gate, and all it's dreaded formiddability. It stood high, wide and gaping, the weaving bands of iron pulsing in dark purple light, covering nearly the entire walkway. Passage was not possible through this door. The group looked to their left, and they saw the room containing the device to open the gate. (Drab sentence, I know. Go ahead; sue me.) 

"I'm going in." Tails announced, walking towards the stone entryway. As he was about to cross into the next room, he was forced to jump back as a dark vortex sprung to life in front of him, whirling in the doorway like a demonic beast. Tails looked uneasily at the whirly-doom-spinning-cloud... -thing... (stop laughing at me!) but Fliara nodded to verify that this was normal. Tails took a deep breath, and then stepped through the vortex.

"Where is he?" Asked Sonic. Fliara looked over at the blue hedgehog.

"He'll be fine... I hope... We can watch him from here, but he can't see us. Look." Fliara said, pointing to the vortex. It now functioned as a one-way window, and on the other side was Tails, in the middle of a small, stone room.

* * *

There was a brief sensation of formlessness, then Tails found himself in a small, enclosed stone room, and as far as he could see, there were no doors or windows. He soon concluded that he would have to escape by defeating the challenge awaiting him. Tails looked around. He didn't see anything. It was terrible cold, and the young fox shivered lightly.

Suddenly, the booming roar of thunder filled the room. Tails looked around, startled, but did not see anything different. Another booming roar shook through the room, and Tails faltered, but told himself that it couldn't hurt him. His shaking decreased, and he stood upright, feeling much bolder.

Another thundering crash rolled through the room, but Tails went unfazed. He smiled to himself; this wasn't so hard! He just had to hang on for a few more seconds, and-... Tails' thoughts were stopped when a small orb of light in the middle of the room. Tails went into a battle-stance, not knowing what to expect. The orb grew, and bolts of electricity danced around it, as it morphed and formed into a giant, thunderous beast, made of leaping bolts of electricity. Tails stumbled, alarmed, and the beast swept a fierce claw at him, a resounding boom exploding from the air that was shredded by the beast's claw. Tails jumped to his feet, but was knocked down again by the shock wave. Fear crept up his spine.

Tails shook it off; it couldn't hurt him, it couldn't hurt him! The kitsune leapt to his feet with renewed valor, but flinched away as the beast swept its claw at him. It left a large cut in his shoulder, and the fox collapsed to his knees in shock as blood dripped from the wound. Tails tried to reassure himself it was an illusion, but it was too late. The fear consumed him.

The young fox felt an immense wave of pain in his conscious, then, nothing more.

* * *

The vortex-window suddenly closed, and the door to the gate-opener closed up with stone.

"TAILS!" Shouted Sonic, taking a step away from Amy, only to stumble and fall. Amy caught him, and pulled him into her arms. "What- what happened?"

"He's gone!" Shouted Knuckles in surprise. Fliara took a step forward,

"No, He's okay... for now. Dan-chilack has him." Fliara explained solemnly, wings drooping. Rouge stared at her in shock.

"Poor Tails... he's trapped? ...That means..."

"It means we have to get there as soon as we can. For Tails' sake." Fliara explained, turning to the rest of the group. Shadow nodded. The red dragon sighed, then looked at the closed gate in remorse. "Let's go." She sighed, turning and walking down the corridor to the left. The heroes paused for a moment, then followed the red dragon, their thoughts lingering on Tails.

* * *

Sonic limped pitifully, exhausted from the continuous walking. His limbs ached and he could no longer hold himself up at all; normally he would be able to do this but it had been so long and he was so weak...

He slowed, unable to keep up the pace, and collapsed to his knees. Amy kneeled down next to him, stroking his quills fondly.

"Fliara?" The pink hedgehog called. "We have to stop- ...its Sonic." Amy explained. She wrapped her arms around the small, blue hedgehog, who quivered slightly in the cold and due to his weakness. Fliara turned towards the two hedgehogs, and moaned in annoyance.

"We have to keep moving. Carry him, if he's so tired." The dragon said, turning around. "We still have an hour of daylight before I fall asleep. I suggest we use it to the fullest." The dragon explained. Knuckles slowed, and eventually stopped.

"I'm kind of tired too." The echidna explained. "I think we could all use some rest." Rouge and Shadow nodded to show their agreement. Fliara moaned.

"Fine. We better set up camp."

* * *

I'm sorry that this chapter's quality is... bad, but it's the best I could do. I think my brain is melting from all of this 3-D stuff. It burns! 


	11. Chihuahuas?

The 3-D is over! I actually liked it a lot; it's just that I kept messing up the animation. In other news...

Alas, I think I have found my true calling. I think it's somewhere between world domination, resident evil, and all the works of Jahonen Vasquez tightened into a neat little package and smothered in ramen. Sounds good, right? Yeah, I knew it did.

Super big demonic battle scene of doom! Don't you just love me?

"No."

"What did I tell you about interrupting me in my gloating! You shall now perish under my really bad singing voice!" (Takes out a karaoke microphone and tries to sing along with some heavy metal.)

"Oh dear god it burns!" (Shadow runs from room.)

* * *

Amy gently rubbed Sonic's back as he slept in her arms, resting his head against her chest. He had fallen asleep listening to her heartbeat, and his breathing had soon fallen into rhythm with hers and he drifted into a peaceful slumber quite fast. Amy stared down at him as thoughts raced through her head, about Tails, and about Sonic. 

Flashbacks of the demons and horrors of the experience sped through her mind. The way Sonic had clung to her when he saw the blood of the corpse... Tails' scream. Knuckles, and how he called for Fliara. This place was not safe.

Fear crept into her heart; she pushed it away. Her fears consisted of many different factors, one: the possibility of Sonic's death. She prayed and hoped more than anything that he would live. That no demon in this castle would take him. That his fear would not conquer him and he could remain safe. The others were insubstantial in compare to that hope, that desire, for is well being. It overshadowed everything else.

Call it what you will, but at that moment Sonic was her main priority.

She scoffed to herself lightly; Sonic would be fine. It would only take a matter of days before he had his strength back and then he wouldn't have to depend on her so much... Amy would miss that. For once in her life she felt like she was important to the group, but Sonic's well being was more important than that. Amy looked around and contemplated on what would happen once this was over and Sonic no longer needed to listen to her heartbeat and snuggle into her embrace.

Fliara had fallen asleep a while ago, curled up right next to the electric heater. If it had been an actual fire, Fliara probably would have curled up in the flames themselves, but had made due with what she could. Amy chuckled, with that dragon's big, superior personality; she could still be adorable at times. The pink hedgehog looked around the room, at the other heroes. Knuckles and Rouge sat next to each other, leaning against the stone wall, and had fallen asleep soon afterward, while Shadow lay on the stone ground, underneath a blanket. Alexi, shockingly, had fallen asleep, (she usually never slept.) propped up against the stone wall, off to Shadow's left. Amy's thoughts wandered and strayed from their intent work on the labyrinth and it's many dangers that threatened Sonic's life.

Both Fliara and Sonic had been so worried about Tails that they seemingly forgot that they hated each other. There was a brief moment of peace between the dragon and hedgehog, but it didn't last as soon as Sonic had requested to listen to Amy's heartbeat, to fall asleep easier and keep the nightmares at bay. Fliara had made quite an insulting comment that Sonic wanted to rest his head on Amy's chest for different reasons, and thusly the two began an all-out feud that destroyed the small truce they had a few minutes ago. Amy and Knuckles had managed to calm them down, and thusly Sonic was lulled to sleep and Fliara gave up, and collapsed into slumber a few minutes later, when the sun apparently went down.

Sonic mumbled something incoherent in his sleep, and burrowed deeper into Amy's arms, his ear twitching once before he settled down again. Amy chuckled to herself; it was so ironic! Here Sonic was, nothing but a vulnerable child in her arms, while she had somehow become some strong, defensive caretaker. Sure, the blue hedgehog was quite strong and was regaining his strength back, but maybe Sonic didn't mind being vulnerable for a moment if it meant Amy would care for him. Every action was now so unlike him, but he was still Sonic, brave, and pure-hearted.

Amy heard a sound to her right and almost sprung to her feet, knowing what had happened last time. She calmed down when she realized that the sound had come from Shadow. He mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over. Upon closer inspection no one was sleeping peacefully, Save Alexi and ...Sonic. He was fine. She sighed and tightened her grip around Sonic's waist, and pulled a blanket over both of them, deciding to go to sleep. She had no nightmares.

She decided that the future was best left to fate.

* * *

Rouge was stirred from her sleep when she heard strange noises coming from down the hall. At first she brushed them off, thinking it was Amy, Sonic or Fliara, but she briefly noticed that they were asleep, and thusly woke up. 

She sat up slowly, the blanket falling off of her, and looked around. She didn't see anything. She used echo sonar, and didn't find anything that way either. But she heard it. Noises. Tiny clicks and snaps, coming from down the hall.

_Not again._ Rouge grumbled, thinking it was the giant monster again. She gave Knuckles a push in attempt to wake him. The red echidna grumbled and rolled onto his side, brushing Rouge's hand away.

"Rouge, it hasn't even been four hours since we set up camp. What is so important?" He grumbled. Rouge stood up, and dragged Knuckles up with her.

"We've got company." The bat explained, pulling the red echidna to his feet. Knuckles, understanding, leapt into action and began to wake everyone up. In a second, everyone was now wide-awake, even Fliara, (Who knows how she managed to wake up, being a dragon. I guess that since she couldn't see the stars or sunlight, her body's clock wasn't quite working? I don't know.)

"What the hell What's the matter." Snapped Shadow as Knuckles woke him up. And by 'woke him up' I mean kicking him in the side. _Hard. _Alexi's eyes snapped open before Rouge could touch her and she rose to her feet before they could say a word.

When Sonic awoke, he seemed rather unhappy about it. He grudgingly removed his ear from Amy's chest, and stared up at the flustered bat.

"Whoa, whoa, what is going on!" Shadow protested, yawning. "I was having the nicest dream."

"We have trouble!" Rouge explained, looking towards where the sound was coming from. But... something was wrong. She didn't hear the sounds anymore. She listened intently, wondering if she had imagined it. Knuckles stared at her odd silence.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Rouge shook her head as she stared into the dark, confused. She knew that she had heard something. She stared at the hall, uncertain.

"I- ...I can't hear it anymore. It's... gone." Rouge trailed off, embarrassed. Sonic glared.

"You mean you were hearing things." He grumbled Sinking back into Amy's arms and resting his head comfortably on her shoulder. "You gotta loosen up, batgirl."

"Yeah." Agreed Shadow. "You woke us up for nothing. If you don't mind me saying, I think your sonar has gone 'batty'."

"Yeah, real funny, Shadow." Rouge grumbled, sitting down. "Next time I'll leave you to the demons."

"Don't do me any favors." Shadow joked. Knuckles glared.

"Tone it down! We're all jumpy after... you know... and Tails... it's no time for jokes!" The red echidna snapped. "You aught to be ashamed of yourselves. Who knows what Tails is going through and you're making wisecracks?" He snarled. Sonic and Shadow looked to the ground, ashamed.

"Hey, Rouge, I sorry, but-" Shadow's sentence was soon cut off.

Suddenly, something leapt from the darkness of the walls and latched to Shadow, clawing and shrieking terribly. The group sprung to their feet, shocked and horrified as the beast attempted to tear off Shadow's face. Alexi quickly whipped out a handgun and shot the beast three times in the head. It fell to Shadow's left, and the black hedgehog scrambled to his feet and took a few steps away from it, staring at it in horror.

It was like a Chihuahua- with eyes the size of tennis balls. Huge, gaping eyes with tiny pupils, and a huge, crescent-moon set of three-inch long teeth that curved in an evil grin. Even as it lay, dead, on the ground, it seemed to be smiling evilly. Scorpion legs sprouted from its sides, accompanying it's small, dog legs, and a scorpion tail adorned its backside.

"What the hell is that!" Shadow screamed. Rouge suddenly heard the noises again, and turned to the hall.

"I don't know. But there's more."

Suddenly, they appeared. Everywhere. Tiny, horrid, nightmares, almost entirely eyeballs and teeth, their huge eyes and tiny pupils that simply grew bigger and bigger over time, trying to see in the dark. They clicked and scurried their way across the walls, ceiling and floor, gaining from every direction.

"Run!" Shouted Amy, picking up Sonic by the waist and running down the corridor. She had the right idea. Knuckles, after swiping away one that leapt towards his face, ran after the group, his feet pounding against the stone floor. He quickly caught up to Fliara, who was lagging in the pack due to the wind resistance on her wings. Knuckles grabbed his sister's claw and threw her to the front of the pack, Where Shadow helped her along.

Sonic fought to keep up with Amy, but he kept stumbling. Amy tried to lift him into her arms, but as she slowed to get a good grip on him, the creatures lunged. One pounced onto Sonic's leg, sinking its fangs into his flesh with its huge teeth. Sonic screamed in pain and attempted to kick the monster away, but more leapt on and continued to tear at his flesh. Amy tried to pull him away from the beats and smack the other ones away, but as she struck the horrors one latched itself onto her forearm as the ravenous nightmares continued to drag Sonic away.

Alexi, hearing Sonic's cries, rose, turned around and teleported to the hedgehogs' sides, swinging her whip around and over her head, taking out three of the many attempting to take a bite out of Sonic's leg as it came around again, barely nicking Sonic across the cheek in the process. Another swipe and the rest were gone; Sonic scrambled to his feet and leapt into Amy's arms. She hoisted him up and ran with the others.

Alexi was swinging her whip left and right continuously, as the little beasts were sent flying back in sprays of their own venomous blood, when one jumped around her offenses and lunged; latching onto her shoulder. Alexi shouted in rage and gripped the creature around the stomach, tearing it away from her. It came apart at the neck; the jaws still clamped onto her flesh as blood poured from the decapitated body. More monsters leapt apon her, and even if she fended them off for a while, soon her skin had been broken in too many places and she teleported to the rest of the group. Alexi, wounds disappeared, began running along with the group.

"Those little bastards are feral!" She snapped, taking out one that had managed to keep up with the group.

"Less talking!" Shadow said. He quickly took out the pistol he had packed and paused to shoot at the monsters following them. One of the bullets went straight through the first creature and took out three more before loosing momentum. He quickly turned around and continued to run, muttering: "They just keep coming!" When he smacked into Knuckles, who had stopped running. "Guys! What's the hold up! We need to get out of here!"

"Not that way we don't!" The echidna protested, pointing ahead of him as more of the same type of monster flew down the hall towards them: both directions were blocked. Alexi promptly swore and dove into the opposing horde, hacking and slashing with her knife and tearing creatures to bits with her whip. She tuned to the other heroes.

"Well don't just stand there! We have to get through these little bastards!" She said, smashing in one's skull with her foot, as the juice from it's crushed eyes oozed around her heel. She continued slashing through them, and the others understood. Rouge, Knuckles, Fliara and Shadow began beating their way through the opposing side. Amy hesitated, carrying Sonic and looking back and forth between the two mobs of monsters. She looked down at Sonic. If she went anywhere near them, Sonic would be taken. He was too weak to fend them off by himself, and Amy couldn't defend both of them.

"I can't!" Amy called out, suddenly giving a scream as one of the beasts lunged at her, barely sinking it's teeth into her side. She threw it away before it could do any damage. Rouge noticed the two's distress, and jumped back to help them.

"Rouge!" Knuckles shouted back, alarmed. The bat didn't answer as she glided over to the two hedgehogs, picked up Sonic, and glided back to the others, at which she quickly gave the blue hedgehog to Shadow and flew back to do the same for Amy.

"Rouge! Knux! Get behind the others! Don't let those followers get any closer! Fliara, Shadow, You take the sides!" Shouted Amy, briefly looking to Alexi to verify that she would be taking the front assault. Fliara jumped to the left side and took out a couple of the beasts, before one latched its jaw onto her forearm, at which she lit a hand a flame and incinerated it. Pretty soon Fliara, (and she didn't often do this) lit herself completely into flames, and she became a giant, dragonoid wrecking ball of an inferno, made entirely of claw, fang and fury. Shadow emptied round after round of ammunition on the monsters, and they fell subsequently, but he was having the same problem as the others; no matter how many times Rouge smashed her boot into the skulls of the creatures or Knuckles crushed one under his fist, there would always be more.

"I can't keep this up, Alexi!" Shadow shouted, struggling to reload the pistol, but interrupted as a gremlin leapt onto his stomach. Alexi quickly disposed of it with a slash of her whip.

"I know!" She growled back, looking around. "Man I wish I had my chain-gun."

"Who in their right mind would give you a chain-gun!"

"I have an idea!" Fliara shouted over the squalls of the monsters. The others looked back at her.

"What?" They nearly shouted in unison.

"Me, Knux and Amy will hold them off! I think they'll give up eventually! Get Sonic, Shadow and Rouge out of here!" Fliara said to Alexi. No time to argue. Amy quickly handed Sonic over to Alexi, who slung him over her shoulder and ran through the rest of the monsters; luckily there were very few left in that direction and soon the four had gotten out while Fliara, Knux and Amy kept the remaining beasts occupied.

Fliara had actually used the buzz-saw attack, _while she was on fire_. That got rid of quite a lot, but there were still more. Knuckles bludgeoned one over the head, and was about to turn to another one, until he noticed... _it was still moving?_

"Jesus Christ!" Knuckles shouted as the injured one latched onto his fist, biting his glove. "They just don't give up!" He shouted in surprise. Fliara suddenly stopped her fighting.

"There's to many of them! We should just outrun them now!" Fliara said, turning to run. Amy and Knuckles followed. But, without warning, one of the monsters attacked, latching itself onto Knuckles' head. Fliara and Amy didn't notice. They kept running.

Knuckles didn't. The monsters mobbed over him, dragging him down, ...hungry.

* * *

...(Grins) Man that scene was good. I just watched resident evil, so I had an advantage on that one. Heh, heh.

* * *

Fliara and Amy soon outran the beasts by far; the few that were left were wandering aimlessly around the twists and caverns of the labyrinth, and even if one did find them, it wouldn't be any threat by itself. They sighed. It was over. The monsters were gone. Fliara saw the rest of the group up ahead and Amy ran to Sonic's side, immediately wrapping him up in her arms and drying his tears. He trembled awfully, and once he felt Amy's arms around him he instantly clung to her. Fliara looked down at the blue hedgehog's injuries. His leg had numerous fang and claw marks, and it was a terribly gruesome sight. Everyone was coated in the monsters' blood, and Sonic's bandages, (on his arm and chest) had been ripped off, exposing the tattered flesh of his wounded arm. He shivered in Amy's embrace as she quickly grabbed the medical kit from her pack and tended to his wounds. 

"Is everyone okay? Any serious injuries?" Fliara asked. Shadow, panting heavily, stared up at her.

"Okay? After that! Are you crazy?" he shouted. "What the hell were those things?" he demanded. Fliara shook her head.

"I don't know. My guess; lesser demons." The dragon answered. She looked to her forearm, where there was a deep bite. She clamped a flaming claw over it, and winced at the mild pain as the fire closed and sanitized the wounds. Fire would almost never hurt her, but on open sores, it stung kind of like orange juice on a sore throat. Amy had a similar bite on her forearm, all had scratches and Shadow had some deep ones on his chest. They would have to rest for a moment until-

Fliara froze as something hit her like a baseball bat, and it wasn't helped when Rouge suddenly stood up and asked.

"Where's Knuckles?" Rouge demanded, looking around. Fliara spun around, staring back down the tunnel, horrified. The other heroes stared at her, even Sonic, who managed to sit up in Amy's arms. Fliara swallowed nervously, and turned around to face Rouge.

"I- I don't know! He was right behind us- I- I swear he was right there, I-... " Fliara looked to the dark hall, and realized...

"NO!" Fliara shouted, sinking to her knees, her shoulders quivering. "No, no, no!" The dragon shouted into the dark. Rouge, suddenly understanding, looked from Fliara, to the others, then down the tunnel. She glared, and ran towards the darkness. Shadow and Amy sprung to their feet in attempt to hold her back.

"Knuckles!" Rouge screamed into the dark. "Knuckles!"

Silence. And nothing but. Rouge froze, and stared down the hallway.

"He- ...he's ...really gone... " she murmured, staring down the dark hallway. Shadow nodded solemnly, and a single tear fell down Rouge's face.

It was then that Fliara burst into sobs, (which, for dragons, is a little different. I'll show you.) ...Her tears fell from her eyes, and formed into small diamonds before they hit the ground, clinking into a small pile as the dragon wept for her brother. As her tears solidified into gems, (as dragon-tears do. You know the saying 'dragons weep diamonds?') The dragons' claws burst into flame, and she stood up, her hair flying out of her face as she stared down the tunnel in rage.

"NO ONE, AND I MEAN NO ONE CAN DO THAT TO **MY** BROTHER WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE!" The dragon screamed into the dark, flames storming up her claws. "YOU HEAR THAT, DAN-CHILACK! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!" The dragon screamed. Everyone jumped back, startled. "I-I'll kill you... " she muttered, before collapsing over the ordeal, the flames on her claws going out, leaving the team in darkness until Shadow lit a torch.

* * *

...Sorry, Knuckles fans, I had to have this in here. If you can figure it out, and pay close attention to details, you actually don't have to worry. But I'm cruel, and thusly won't tell you until next chapter. MUAHAHAHAHA! Now, if you'll excuse me- ..." (turns on boom box) 

Hey man, look-at-me rockin' out, I'm on the- radio!

"Oh just stop! For the love of all that's unholy please stop!"

Fine. REVIEW! And thank me for the super-psycho battle scene, which I think I did a very good job on. KUDOS FOR THE MASTER!

"Okay." Said shadow, throwing a bunch of granola bars at me.

"NO! Not granola! It's my one weakness!"

And thusly komodo lost her super-powers and Shadow took over krypton- I mean- metropolis- I mean- the world.


	12. He's dead, Jim

Fish just in; 'Omega laboratories' has nothing to do with 'Omega' the robot. I made up the company before Sega introduced the robot's character. Yeah, that's right, the bastards copied me! And one day I WILL sue!

Anyway, onto the origin of this chapter...

I figured, "hey, I haven't done a scene in Sonic's P.O.V for a while in this story, so, why not?" I tried to stress how having a hundred demon chihuahuas trying to tear your legs off was kind of traumatic, and I guess I fit in a small amount of mush.

Actually, Sonic thinks very little about Amy in this chapter in comparison to the others. What can I say? I thought it was an improvement.

Knux fans will be very happy at the end of this chapter. I can guarantee it. Again, thanks for reading and I would LOVE to get some reviews!

Everyone: Merry Chupacabra day.

* * *

(Sonic's P.O.V.)

_I closed my eyes, but all I could see was blood and teeth and those horrible, bug-like monsters. _

_They had been all over me. Swarming, biting, clawing... they were going to eat me alive. I can still feel their fangs sinking into my skin, how it stung as they lapped up my blood and my tears. I think they liked the taste or something. I feel a soft hand stroking my wounds, and I know its Amy. She's sitting here, holding me, so gently. It's like I'm made of glass, and she's afraid that she'll break me if she holds on too tight. _

_I wish that she'd hold on tighter. I'd feel safer that way. I just know it._

_It still hurts. I know that I'll be okay, but that doesn't stop the pain. I should be fine, actually, and in ways I am, just tired... and scared. I don't understand why it's okay for Tails to be afraid and for Fliara to be afraid... while everyone seems to get mad at me when I get scared. Except for Amy. I think she likes taking care of me. In truth, I like being taken care of. But that's not the point..._

_They were everywhere. It hurt. There was blood... I hate blood. It was terrible. I really didn't think I would escape. I thought they were going to kill me. No one can tell me what to think about it, because they haven't been nearly eaten alive by a swarm of dog-scorpions, have they? No. They can't tell me not to be afraid. It hurt. It was scary. I can't even move my right leg anymore. Amy says it will get better, but I'm not sure I believe her._

_Fliara's awake now. She hasn't said anything... Poor Knuckles. Poor Tails. I wish we never came here._

_...I'm so tired. I roll onto my side so I'm facing Amy, and try to move closer to her. I really wish she would hold me tighter. It's so cold in here. ...I think she started to wrap me up in a blanket, but I can't be sure. I'm falling asleep. I hope I don't have nightmares.

* * *

_

I fought trans-vis-script-phobia! Whoot for me!

* * *

Alexi watched the two hedgehogs wordlessly, her slitted pupils dilating and shifting in interest as the pink one took Sonic up in her arms and gently sung him a lullaby. The blue leopard's ears flicked back and forth, listening to the words and melody.

It was a curious thing, love. Ah, yes, Alexi had seen much of it. It interested her. And of course she could see how it began, why and how it was made, and what it usually led to. She understood it, like many things, down to its fine details and up to it's simplest explanations. However, she had never felt love for very many things, and could not quite recall the last time she looked upon something with care.

The leopard chuckled lightly, staring down at the two hedgehogs. It would be easy, nearly effortless, to snuff their lives like candles and listen to their souls cry out for each other in turmoil. It wouldn't be the first time. But she knew very well that she wouldn't. She didn't really want to. For many reasons. This hedgehog, the blue and now the pink because the meaning she held in his life, were important factors of her existence.

She stared over at Sonic. If he knew for a second where he had come from, how he came to be, he would be quite surprised. Alexi again laughed to herself, picking her fanged teeth. He could not help that his origin was so vile, he didn't even know about it, and Alexi doubted Shadow remembered... And maybe that was for the best.

The dragon and the bat were still upset about the echidna's death. Pity, Knuckles could have done many great things in his life. (Alexi defines 'great' as 'big and death-explode-ey')

The leopard, nothing else to do, closed her eyes and let her thoughts wander into the many paradoxes scattered at the end of her conscious.

* * *

"I can't believe he's gone." Rouge said quietly to herself. "Just like that- gone. It's not right."

Fliara's slate eyes, hardened with rage and bitter vengeance, no longer had their majestic sheen. The dragon's claws twitched slightly; a sign that she was wound up like some toy mouse- anyone who dared to touch her would risk getting their head cut off. The dragon's thoughts were non-existent, as her eyes took in the darkness and her blood boiled within her.

"...Knuckles didn't deserve that." Shadow said, flicking away some pebbles scattered on the cobblestone floor. "No one deserves that."

"Well, no-brainer there! He was (censored for your moral safety) eaten alive!" Alexi scoffed. Her dark chuckles rolled to silence, and there was a brief pause. "You know what? I take that back. Omega laboratories; they deserved to be eaten alive." She concluded.

Shadow looked over at the leopard that had devoured his thoughts for the past year, and could, quite easily, picture her taking a drink of some alcoholic beverage at that moment. And Shadow was sure that she would have; had not alcohol be effect-less on her. She'd need to drink about 5x more than her stomach could contain in order to get any form of high off it. So what was the point? Shadow felt his spirit sink at Alexi's predicament. A past of pain, no future, and no way to drown the memories. It made him feel like crying.

She could have been such a beautiful person... she was so strong, and literally invincible, ...she could solve the world's problems quite realistically. And yet, she was a monster... she laughed at the death of her victims. She was exactly what she was supposed to be: a suicidal monster with no way to die and every way to kill. She had no circumstances. She could very well kill them all at this second and leave. Shadow was sure that she was thinking about it.

She broke the rules of karma and balance. She did not have to obey the laws of the world, of death and life and revenge.

She could, quite literally, do whatever the hell she wanted. And she did.

"We should get to sleep. We still have about 6 hours of night." Fliara said expressionlessly. The dragon then curled up, her long tail draped over the rest of her body and her wings shielding her from view.

The rest of the heroes, agreeing, also went to sleep.

* * *

Three hours later, a certain bat sat wide awake, unable to sleep as tormenting thoughts bombarded her mind.

Rouge stared up at the stone ceiling. It wasn't fair. Why? He shouldn't of had to die... it wasn't fair... She punched the wall in anguish. Knuckles should have lived...

He was a brother, a guardian, and a friend... he had too many responsibilities to die! It wasn't fair! The bat rested her face in her hands and sighed heavily. True, she had been taking it better than Fliara, but it was eating her up, and something about it was persistently bugging her.

This was like the feeling she got when Shadow had been presumed dead. There was something... not right about it. Like it wasn't supposed to happen. That time her suspicions had been correct, Shadow was indeed alive. But Rouge knew that this time she was wrong. How could Knuckles have escaped, anyway? And Tails... was Tails dead as well? Fliara said no, but how could she be sure? Rouge regained her composure and sighed.

If Knuckles and Tails were indeed dead, it only proved that Dan-Chilack was not to be taken lightly. If he were allowed to continue, then the world would perish indefinitely.

Rouge was stirred from her thoughts when she heard a strange noise, coming from down the hall. The bat snapped to attention, springing to her feet, and was about to wake the others, when...

Something clicked, in the back of her mind, something odd, and she was compelled not to wake her friends. She stood there, uncertain why she was standing there, listening to the surreal footsteps come closer. She readied into a battle stance, as her ears flicked back and forth, struggling to come up with a sonar picture over the excess sound. It did her no good.

Suddenly, something lunged from the darkness, landing in a heap in front of the startled bat, who gave an immediate shriek as she saw what lay before her...

* * *

(Okay, Here's where I demand that you guess what it is. Think about it REALLY hard. I think it should be obvious.)

* * *

"Knuckles!" Rouge exclaimed, sinking to the red echidna's side, and helping him to his feet. The red echidna smiled up at her, and gave her a gloved thumb's-up.

"Thought I was done for, didn't you?" The violet-eyed guardian mumbled, wincing from the pain in his arm. Rouge looked over him; he was covered in numerous but not serious scratches and pierce wounds, save a deep gash on his arm. The bat stared down at him, wordless, before slapping him soundly across the face. The red echidna fell down to the ground, surprised, and stared up at the bat, dumbfounded.

"How dare you make us worry like that! How dare you! I thought you were dead!" The treasure-hunter yelled, waking the surrounding heroes. "I... Knuckles, I though you were dead..." the bat repeated hysterically. Knuckles stared up at her, surprised. Suddenly, the bat burst into something between laughter and sobs and pounced upon the red echidna, clasping him firmly in a hug. "Don't you EVER do that again, you knucklehead!" She shouted, squeezing him tightly. Knuckles laughed and patted Rouge's back.

"Hey, I won't." He answered, looking over at the rest of the heroes, who were waking up.

Fliara, barely awake, took one look at the magenta-eyed marsupial and gave an inaudible shout, tackling Knuckles to the ground.

"Knuckles! You're alive! Dear god you're alive!" The dragon shouted gleefully. Before Knuckles knew it, he had been tackled by nearly every member of the group, save Amy who was far to busy keeping Sonic upright and Alexi who was far to busy quietly smiling in the shadows.

There was much rejoicing.

* * *

"How did you survive? Those monsters... they were terrible!" Sonic questioned enthusiastically, slightly squirming in Amy's embrace. The red echidna shrugged and chuckled as Fliara rolled over in her sleep; the dragon had simply not been able to stay awake, and thusly collapsed on the spot. He fondly ruffled his sister's hair.

"I really don't know. First I'm trying to keep those things from eating me alive, then, they all just scurry away, like they had somewhere better to be." He said, taking a drink from the soda Shadow had offered him. Amy had tended to the red echidna's wounds, (Sonic had gotten kind of jealous.) and the red echidna was now fine. "I don't know why they left, but they did."

"Which direction did they go?" Asked Shadow, looking at a map of the labyrinth (a very crude and inaccurate one, but a map anyway,) and plotting out their course. Knuckles shook his head.

"It was kind of dark. It sounded like they scurried in every direction, though." Knuckles said. Shadow paused, and looked up from the map.

"Like they wanted to get away?" The black hedgehog suggested. The surrounding heroes starred up at him.

"What are you saying?" Asked Sonic, shifting around in Amy's arms. The black hedgehog stared down at them.

"I'm thinking that maybe... they ran away from something bigger?" Shadow suggested tonelessly. Rouge frowned.

"It's quite possible. That would mean that something very big is following us. Something dangerous." The treasure-hunter concluded. She paused to let the words sink in. "Is that true, Shadow?"

"It could be." He mused. There was a moment of silence throughout the hall, and no one dared to break it for quite some time.

Suddenly, as if to purposefully ruin the aura of dread, Fliara gave an adorable yawn and rolled over in her sleep, curling up to save warmth. Knuckles laughed.

"She's got the right idea. We should all sleep. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow." The echidna laughed, lying down. The others agreed, and took out the various blankets and sleeping bags. Shadow hesitated.

"What if this thing is waiting for us to sleep?" Shadow suggested. Alexi chuckled darkly.

"Then it would have got you before Knuckles showed up. I'll stand guard anyway, if you're going to start crying on me." The leopard scoffed, wandering into the darkness to scout the halls for monsters. Shadow, his dignity dented, grudgingly took out a sleeping bag. Sonic smirked.

"Is the ultimate life form scared?"

"Oh, zip it."

Sonic shrunk away from Shadow's threatening tone, and curled up contentedly in Amy's arms. The entire group followed Fliara's wordless advice and went to sleep, although finding it difficult due to the unsurpassed joy in their hearts at the fact that their friend was alive.

None had nightmares this night.

* * *

It's a chapter. You love it. Now review. 


	13. COULD IT BE?

"GODDAMIT! I can't type a single thing!" Proclaimed the authoress, picking up a lamp and throwing it across the room. "How did I let this happen? Why oh why could I let this story not be updated for... for...

FOUR MONTHS!"

Komodo sobbed bitterly and fell to her knees, beating the already deformed lamp into the carpet.

"...I... maybe I should kill the story... I don't deserve to be an authoress for this fic anymore! I should just give the story to a more deserving, hard-working if not less attractive author/authoress." Komodo sighed. She walked over to her desktop, opened up the fanfiction folder through windows explorer, and highlighted the folder entitled 'Fear'

"Goodbye, story! I'm sorry I have to do this, but I just can't provide for you any more!" She declared, about to hit the delete button.

"Don't do it, Komodo!" Exclaimed Shadow, bursting into the room. He tackled Komodo to the ground, and handed her a document. "Look at all the eager reviewers you disappointed! Komodo, it isn't your choice! It isn't optional! IT IS YOUR DUTY AS AN AUTHORESS! Don't let this story end up like so many before it!"

"You're right, Shadow!" She shouted, jumping to her feet. "I can't let the public down! I must fight the good fight! I must keep typing, keep thriving, and keep the heart of the sonic torturers beating! It is my destiny to finish this fanfic, and I'll complete chapter 13 even if I have to stay up all night!" She declared.

A brief pause went through the room.

"WHAT DID I JUST DO? I DIDN'T JUST PROMISE TO FINISH A CHAPTER THAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR **FOUR MONTHS** IN **ONE NIGHT**, DID I?" Komodo exclaimed. Shadow nodded wordlessly.

Komodo ran screaming from the room.

Shadow, unsure what to do, walked up to the computer and opened up the 2-kilobyte file, and began to type...

* * *

"When's the next gate, Fliara?" Asked Shadow, walking slowly down the stone halls. The dragon took a brief look at the decrepit map, then around the halls and sketches of the labyrinth they had made so far. She sighed. 

"It's right there."

Sure enough, the second gate of the labyrinth stood before them. The thin ribbons of pulsating, indigo metal laced themselves across the hallway, rendering passage impossible. The heroes looked up and down the threatening patterns with awe and agony, knowing the gate would either open or claim another member of their team into Dan-Chilack's prison. They all shuddered at the idea.

A solitary figure of the group stood forth, letting her wings spread out in aggravation and her tail slash marks into the floor.

"I'll do it!" Proclaimed Fliara. She turned back to her comrades, eyes blazing in fury. "Someone has to figure out what's happening to Tails, and if I-"

"No, Fliara!" Knuckles argued. The dragon paused, and turned to look at him, surprised. He frowned. "Fliara, you can't." He said, holding up his hands. Fliara's gaze hardened, and she took a step forward. She looked Knuckles in the eye, although it was difficult due to the height difference, and stood her ground.

"Why not?" She asked. "You and I both know that I can-"

"No, Fliara, no!" He insisted. "It's not a matter of that- I know you could do it, Fliara, and I know you want to save Tails. But this team needs your knowledge about the labyrinth for as long as they can keep it, all right?" He asked. The dragon let her gaze fall to the floor, but she was obviously upset by his decision.

"I don't like this." She argued, scuffing her foot against the stone of the floor.

"It doesn't matter." Rouge declared. "...Besides, we agreed that we were going to be a team on this. That means we make decisions together... " She looked briefly to the other heroes, and saw no objecting looks. They all agreed as well. "Now let's rule out who can't go yet... " The bat said. Shadow nodded and walked foreword into the group, his hover-shoes clacking noisily against the cobblestone floor.

"Sonic and Amy can't. If they're separated, then the ghosts will take Sonic... and we have to protect as many lives as possible from Dan-Chilack." The black hedgehog declared, folding his arms in front of his chest. He looked over at Fliara. "And even though I hate to say it, I think Fliara needs to stick with the group until we learn enough about demons on our own."

The dragon grumbled and leaned against the wall, her claws clacking angrily.

"I'd hate to be her." Sonic murmured to Amy. "Well, I hate to be her given any circumstances but now especially."

"Sonic!" Amy snapped quietly, trying to stifle a giggle. "Stop that."

Shadow stared at the two meaningfully. "Are you two finished?" He asked, tapping his foot impatiently. Sonic chuckled nervously.

"By all means. Go ahead."

He again looked around at the rest of the group, and then to the room next to the gate, the pedestal with the 'key' in the middle of it. The 'key' was, in reality; a pyramid shaped gem, when placed into a device on the wall of the same room would open the gate for a short time- not enough time for the opener of the gate to get through as well. Besides, it was necessary to have someone standing by the gate when it would need to be opened again.

"That leaves Knuckles, Rouge, Alexi, and me." He explained. The hedgehog looked around at the prementioned heroes. None of them looked like they wanted to go in the gate, and Shadow knew the decision would be difficult.

"How do we choose?" Asked Sonic. Shadow shook his head.

"I don't know. Who wants to go first, anyway?" He asked. Alexi gave a brief scoff- and Shadow knew she was out of the question, (besides, Shadow didn't want her to leave yet anyway) Knuckles at first looked like he was about to say something, when Rouge stepped forward, interrupting him.

"Rouge!" Knuckles protested, startled. The bat turned around and frowned at him.

"I'm not your little sister, Knuckles. I want to do this- we have to get through and I know I can do it..." She paused. "If everyone here will help me." Rouge was silent for a moment, looking around at the good friends surrounding her. Even Alexi at this moment gave no reason to be despised- and that's saying a great deal for the leopard. "So... can I depend on you guys?" She asked.

"You bet! We're you're friends- and here for you all the way!" Amy said, smiling as she pulled Sonic into a hug. The blue hedgehog grinned, and added:

"Even if the going gets tough." He said.

"For better or for worse- we're all a team here." Shadow agreed. He turned to the blue leopard standing next to him. "Even you, Alexi."

She made a faint grunt and slightly moved her shoulders.

"Just wonderful. All my problems are solved. Excuse me while I cheer in jubilation." The leopard complained. Sonic laughed, and the other members of the group joined in for a brief chuckle, before their tones also became sober. Rouge, before entering the gate, turned to her friends one last time.

"If I don't make it out- I'll be sure to tell Tails you guys are coming for him." She said, turning to enter the trial...

Suddenly and without any warning, Knuckles ran up and hugged Rouge from behind, just before she was about to enter the chamber. The bat froze in her tracks, and turned around, smiling briefly before returning the hug.

"I... You be careful in there." Knuckles demanded, hugging her tightly.

"I love you too, knucklehead." The bat joked, ruffling his quills.

The two split the embrace, then Rouge turned around, and walked into the room with the pedestal, leaving the remaining six heroes to stand and watch.

Immediately as the bat stepped across the seam in the rock, the doorway behind her swirled shut- the stone melting and vortexing into a wall. Then, the 'window', lined with dark purple sparks of malevolent magic, sprung to life on the surface of the corridor; allowing one-way vision into the room. For a second it appeared that nothing had changed. Rouge still stood by the former entrance of the enclosure, the key lying on its pedestal at the opposite edge. The room remained the same. Rouge slowly walked across the stone floors, but still nothing appeared to happen.

"Knuckles," Began Fliara. "What's Rouge's worst fear, anyway?" She asked. The echidna, staring intently at the screen, swallowed nervously, but then muttered:

"Centipedes."

As if that was the magic word, right after Knuckles said it Rouge's hand jerked away from the pedestal, key and all, as thousands upon thousands of centipedes crawled from the cracks in the stone. They swarmed across the floor, the ceiling, and flooded down from the walls like sinister fountains. The bat stood there, in the midst of it all, frozen in terror, as she watched them swarm together at the center of the room, forming a huge pile. Rouge tried to ignore it, and turned back toward the pedestal, barely visible due to the bugs swarming over it. She took a few labored steps, but stopped as the vermin began to crawl up her boots. Not only was this incredibly disturbing to the bat- but it was slowing her down.

In the hall, Knuckles was nothing short of freaking out. He repeatedly bashed his fist against the corridor, swearing at Dan-Chilack for what he was putting them through. Not just Rouge, but everyone. In the whole world, for that matter! Knuckles was finally realizing their own mortality in the situation and was furious, and at the same time hysteric in worry for Rouge.

His agitation was not helped as he saw the pile of centipedes in the center of the room erupt; and as to his horror, a solitary, huge centipede, no short of twelve feet in length, stood in it's place.

"ROUGE! LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU!" He shouted, pounding his fist upon the magical window. Fliara grabbed his fist, trying to hold him back.

"She can't hear you! Don't worry, brother- She's going to be okay!" The dragon yelled, trying to calm him down. It wasn't working.

"What if she gets hurt?" He shouted back to her. The dragon let go of his arm and backed away, but did not give up.

"Then she gets hurt! But Rouge is strong- have some faith in her!" She said. Knuckles paused, but nodded, turning back towards the battle.

Rouge noticed the giant centipede before it could attack- and after being scared stiff for a few seconds- leapt into action, spin-kicking the beast into oblivion. The surrounding heroes gave a sigh of relief.

The bat progressed, pushing her way through the now threateningly large but at least more scarce insects, until finally she grasped the key in her glove and held it triumphantly in the air, immediately afterward crushing one of the bugs beneath her boot.

"Fear has no power over me." She declared.

Apparently those words had more power than meant- for the moment she said them, the centipedes disappeared, the window vanished, and the door to the chamber re-opened. Rouge stood there, looking kind of dumbstruck, before immediately cheering in victory and running back to her friends.

Knuckles grinned and seized the bat in his arms, swinging her around once before pulling her back close to him.

"I knew you could do it!" He shouted. "You were excellent, Rouge!"

"We opened a gate- that means we'll be able to save Tails even sooner!" Declared Sonic. "This is great!"

At first the team continued to celebrate- but then they paused, realizing what this meant... Since Rouge beat the trial, she would have to remain by this chamber, to keep the gate open. They would have to leave her behind- the very idea nearly drove Knuckles crazy.

"...I don't want to have to leave you behind." He said. "...I don't want to leave anyone behind. It's not fair- why couldn't Dan-Chilack go ruin some other millennium?" The echidna argued, shaking his head. Rouge laughed.

"Don't worry- I'll be fine. And in a few days, Dan-Chilack will be dead and you and I and everyone else here can get back to our good old lives..." She gave the echidna a quick hug. "Don't even think about staying here with me- you're going to have a gate to keep open yourself. Keep your ears open- you won't have me to listen out for you anymore."

"Yeah, I know." He said, pulling away from the embrace.

There was an uncomfortable pause amongst the heroes as the two stood there for a moment, before Rouge quickly gave Knuckles a kiss on the cheek.

"Be careful out there, will ya?"

"Knux? Did you hear me?"

"...Yeah... I... I will."

* * *

Knuckles was nearly grinning ear to non-existent ear as the group once again set out down the hall, ignoring the occasional comments by Sonic and the odd glances from Fliara. He didn't care- he had just gained renewed strength from the knowledge that even when apart, he could be sure that he would se Rouge again. He no longer had to worry, even if he did anyway, and now he could focus on the task at hand- defeating Dan-Chilack, and saving Tails and the rest of the world. 

Sonic, however, was not so happy. Amy noticed, and helped support a bit more of his weight, also tilting his head onto her shoulder. Noticing he was still sad, she slowed down a little and smoothed his quills with one hand.

"Hey... Are you tired? I could carry you, if you want to sleep." She suggested. Sonic shook his head, and kept walking, trying not to remove his eyes from the ground. Amy sighed, and held him closer. "What's wrong, Sonic? ...You can tell me." She offered. At first the blue hedgehog seemed to push her away- but then he looked up at her, sighed, ad apparently began to spill his guts.

"Amy... you don't think I'm... a burden to you... do you?" He asked, not making eye contact with her. Amy paused, and gently ruffled the fur on his side, a concerned expression dawning her face.

"Sonic... is that what this is about?" She asked. She looked down at him, understanding where he got the notion. He was the fastest thing alive- and now he had to cling to Amy just to stand up straight. He was the hero of station square- and only days before he had begged her for protection. And now the pink hedgehog was forced to give a lot of her time in order to keep him healthy. Amy sighed, and gently placed a finger beneath his chin, lifting his face to meet hers. Once she was sure he was listening, she smiled warmly, pulling him closer into her embrace. "Baby, I love taking care of you... why would you ever feel that you were a burden to me, Sonic?"

"I- ...Amy... I'm worried that I'm being too dependent..." He muttered. "I... I _feel_ weak, and I hate the feeling. And the worst part- there's nothing I can do." He pressed a little closer to Amy, burrowing his muzzle into her fur. "It's not that I don't appreciate what you're doing for me- I love it, when you hold me... but..." He looked around, then sadly shook his head. "It feels weird, not being the hero anymore."

Amy stared down sadly at him, and hugged him tightly to her.

"No matter what you do, you'll always be _my_ hero, Sonic." She said. He looked up at her, surprised.

"Why?"

"Because that's who you are to me. I never loved you because you were strong or because you could run fast, or anything like that- I love you because of how hopeful you can always be... your care-free personality, your courage, your loyalty! Sonic..." She sighed. "I wouldn't care if you couldn't fight for a while- as long as you were still my Sonic on the inside." She hugged him once more. "And you still are, you know. And I love you for that."

Sonic seemed to be feeling better, but was still unsure.

"I wasn't very brave back at the apartment... when the ghosts attacked me..." He argued.

"That wasn't an issue of bravery. There was nothing you could have done and you know it. Besides- courage is not lack of fear; it's not letting fear control you. You did fine in my eyes, Sonikku." Amy said, trying to encourage him. Sonic shook his head. "You're my hero because I can always turn to you for inspiration and strength- you're incredible, Sonic. I love you no matter what you need from me." She told him, giving him a quick kiss.

Sonic paused for a moment, but then smiled. He understood now.

"So... you wouldn't mind if I were still a little dependent on you for a while? At least until this is over?" He asked. Amy giggled.

"Of course not. Go ahead; be as dependent as you need to."

The hedgehogs grinning and continued talking, Sonic feeling better with every word said.

Shadow, observing quietly from a distance, smiled at the sight of the two young hedgehogs. Love was truly a precious thing. As far as he could remember, he had never been in love- then again he was still missing a large portion of his memory. It was perfectly possible that he had met someone in the blank 48 years of his past, or at least the years where he wasn't captured by G.U.N.

As for love in the present, there was Alexi, but Shadow was not sure he loved her or even felt anything towards her besides a general, friendly concern. He did want her to be happier or at least content, but he wasn't sure if that meant he loved her or not. He had little experience in the field. It wasn't like he could say he found her _un_attractive- that wasn't true by any means- it was just that her personality was so deranged... she disturbed him sometimes. Once or twice he _had_ imagined what it would be like if she were normal... and if they did have a relationship... but as of late... he just wasn't sure. He pushed the thoughts away. Alexi was a bad example, but who else had he loved in his life?

There was Maria, and yes he had loved her, but not like Sonic loved Amy. Maria had been like a mother to him; actually, that's what he had always thought of her. 'Mother'. She taught him everything he knew since the day on the ark he was created. She had taught him right from wrong, good from bad...

...All in all, she had been a very good mother...

...The thoughts were beginning to mist his eyes, so he pushed them aside, and focused again on the labyrinth and it's many dangers. Or, at least he would have, had not he suddenly realized something...

...Where was Alexi?

He stopped, and looked behind him, to see the blue leopard standing absolutely still in the dark hall, not moving. He motioned to Fliara to stop, and went over to the blue leopard, trying not to aggravate her.

"Alexi, what are you-"

"Tell the others to wait here, Shadow. We need to talk. Alone."

* * *

Komodo walked back into the room, and calmly sat by her computer desk, casually drumming her fingers against the wood. 

"Hello, readers. I'm sure you're quite mad at me, for I let this story sit, unattended, for a span of four months. Well, it was either four or three- I don't remember." She explained. "But that's not important, for sucky or no, chapter 13 is here. I hope you enjoyed it, for the authors note at the beginning of this fic was false; Shadow did not write this chapter for me. He just poked me whenever I started to fall asleep in mid-paragraph. I stayed up all night typing this on Saturday, 11-26-05, and finally it's gotten through all the revisions, and is up on the net."

"Please forgive me for not updating, and do leave a review. I don't care what you type- I deserve the worst for what I did to this story. So just click it. It's not that hard- it's just that little blue button- right there. You only have to move the mouse a few inches, come on, review! What, are you not man enough to midge the mouse over a couple of centimeters and type up a few measly sentences? You're pathetic! Come on, you know you want to review! REVIEW! HEY, DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME! COME BACK! ...crap... ...I scared away the reviewers again..."


	14. Star Wars' all over again

Well... err... here's chapter 14. And merry christmas, too! Yeah... r-review. Seriously.

Oh! Reviews! Heh-heh... almost forgot there...

**Gamewizard: Thanks for the forgiveness. I know I went crazy with the laziness there and I'll never let myself forget.**

Isu: Indeed it does, my friend, indeed it does. I'm all the glader for it too.

**Saphire: I know it took me waaay to long with chapter 13. By the way, you never got back to me as to what you want to do with that plot. I'm not going to type up chapter one untill you say you're going to adopt the story. I can't start ANOTHER story- I havefour in the works counting the sequel I'm writing next spring.**

Blueblur: Thanks! That really does make me feel better- I was worried that people would scream and throw things. But thankfully they didn't. Alteast... not yet... (paranoid.)

**Stev: Thanks, I thought so too. I hope you like chapter 14 as much.**

Liz: What do you mean being afraid of centepeides wasn't original? I haven't read anything where a goverment spy was a fraid of centipeides! Oh well- anyway the plot twist thing here was also depicted in my other story so some of the people here might know what it is- BUT THEY PROBABLY WONT! MUAHAHA! Ayway, update your stories soon, and have a merry unspecified winter holiday!

**SpecialED: Aww, thanks. I wouldn't delete it, even if it did take me four... months.. to type up... I HATE when witer's block strikes. Oh well- atleastI didn't have to stay up all night to write THIS chapter.**

funvtfun: Thanks for saying that. Me and liz have been friends for a while but I think she'll alwaysbe more well-known on this site than me. But it's good to know that We're both doing well!

**Ri2: Why, I have not the slightest idea! You have to read and find out!**

ElektraGirl: ...err... no... I don't get it. (sweatdrop) Thanks for reviewing, anyway!

**Wow, I actually responded to all of them. Neato.**

* * *

Alexi walked down the hall, her thoughts whirling as Shadow silently followed.

Was it right for her to tell him this? True, it was his past and he probably had the right to know; but was it really her responsibility? Not only was this discussion going to be unpleasant; as Shadow might not react very well; but the consequences of this knowledge could be disastrous. What if he told Sonic? As much as it was Sonic's right to know as well- the boy wasn't in the position to deal with such information, or at least not at the moment.

Another question that was bothering her- why was she doing this in the first place? As stated before- Shadow's happiness was neither her responsibility nor her concern. It wasn't going to bring her any benefit by telling him this. And at the same time she felt reasonlessly compelled to do so. Maybe it was for the satisfaction of seeing his discomfort at the news. Or maybe she was curious as to what he would think. Possibly, somewhere in her conscious a part of her was still trying to reason with the world, like a little voice of moral in the back of your head that you have to make sure to step on every few days. Maybe a part of her wanted Shadow to know.

But that part of her was long dead- so that couldn't be the solution. Perhaps she didn't need a reason- but nonetheless Shadow was about to discover a hidden element of his past.

"Shadow," Alexi began, her voice monotone and void. "What would think if I told you that I knew something about your past- about the 50 blank years between Ark and now?" She told him, turning around to look Shadow in the eye.

The hedgehog carried a lit torch, since Fliara and the others were far out of earshot, and thusly would leave where they stood dark without it. He seemed concerned- somewhere between the belief that Alexi was beginning some cruel joke or discontent that this was going to be bad news. In a way, the latter was correct. Or maybe not- Alexi neither knew nor cared how Shadow would take the news- just that he heard it.

"Like what, Alexi?" He asked, switching the uncomfortably warm torch from one hand to the other. "This isn't bad, is it?"

Alexi scoffed slightly, her ears twitching in amusement. Uncanny that he should ask the same questions she had asked herself.

"Not exactly, Shadow. It will depend entirely on how you take it in." concluded the leopard, not bothering to give away too much detail that the hedgehog didn't ask for.

For a few moments Shadow stood there, awkwardly shifting his weight. He wasn't stupid; he knew very well that Alexi was not the type of person to give this information out on a charity basis. As a matter of fact, it was odd for Alexi to even talk to him like this, and he had the right to be suspicious.

"What is this really about, Alexi?" He asked. "I already told you- Maria never told me how to kill you. She just told me to stay away from you- and I understand why now."

It was true; Maria had told him about his prototypes. Alexi he had always had a curiosity for, but every day he began to increasingly doubt her innocence. No matter what the scientists had done to her it did not justify the murder of hundreds. Sometimes the leopard just exploded- and Shadow hated having to be the one to hold her back.

Alexi, after hearing his last statement, turned around and glared.

"It's about what I said it was about- Now Shadow, do you want to hear the news or not?" She growled, her tail twitching in aggravation. Normally Shadow would take this as a sign to back off, but he was getting sick and tired of Alexi's attitude.

"Why do you care? Alexi, this isn't like you. Now I know you know I want to learn more about my past- but why do you want to help me?" He demanded. "You never consider the needs of anyone- not even yourself. Why am I an exception?"

Alexi groaned, finding she had no answer to his questions. So, that's how she decided to respond.

"You don't need to be an exception, Shadow- maybe I just feel like it." She protested.

"Then why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"You weren't ready." She answered. And it was true; he hadn't been. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"So I'm ready now?" He asked. Alexi decided that this was taking to long; he needed to be told. Whether he wanted to or not, it was time for him to know.

"Shadow, have you ever wondered why Sonic could use chaos control?" She asked, careful not to make eye contact with the hedgehog. For a few moments his only response was silence, but then he replied:

"Don't change the subject, Alexi." He snapped. The leopard ignored him, and continued.

"Have you ever really thought about it? The people in 'Project Shadow' spent nearly three generations figuring out how to build a creature capable of harnessing chaos energy. Could it really be that another hedgehog with exactly the same abilities just appeared out of nowhere 34 years later?"

Shadow was silent, and Alexi could tell what she was saying was starting to effect him. Maybe he was catching on.

"Haven't you wondered why he looked so much like you? Haven't you wondered why he was able to run so fast? Do you really think he could have obtained those abilities without some form of unnatural factor?"

At first the black hedgehog opened his mouth to speak- but he was unable to find words. What Alexi was saying was starting to fall in place inside his head. 16 years ago... Sonic was 16 years old... What had happened? What was she saying? Had G.U.N cloned Sonic from him? What was going on? He summed up his courage, and attempted a reply.

"Are you saying that Sonic is a clone of me?" He asked. Alexi laughed out loud, and turned to face him.

"No, Shadow- but that was a good guess. But even if that were so- then how would I know about it?" She asked. Shadow shook his head- he still couldn't figure it out- he still couldn't decipher what she was talking about.

"Alexi... just tell me... I don't remember anything about whatever happened 16 years ag-." Shadow began, when suddenly he froze, realizing something. But... no, that couldn't be right. That _couldn't_ be right! Alexi had to be lying- or talking about something else! He couldn't be Sonic's...

Alexi grinned smugly.

"Figured it out, did you? That was fast." She chuckled darkly. Shadow snapped out of his trance, and glared at the leopard.

"You don't know what I was thinking." He argued, backing away from her. The leopard scowled in mock injury.

"A girl can guess, can't she? ...Shadow, I think you should know that Sonic is not just your friend..." She began. The hedgehog in front of her backed away.

"...No..." Shadow shook his head, disbelieving.

"Yes, Shadow." Alexi argued, a thin, dark smile appearing on her lips. " ...Sonic is your son."

* * *

"What do you think they're talking about over there?" Asked Knuckles, absent-mindedly adjusting the knob on the portable heater. Fliara gave a good-humored shrug, and nestled deeper into the little enclove she had made with her large wings. The dragon yawned, stretched, and curled back up- her knees to her chest and her tail draped over her feet.

"Your guess is as good as mine- but if either one of them starts screaming I suggest we intervene." She commented, picking the dirt off of her claws. In all truthfulness, the group as a whole looked terribly bedraggled from the adventure, and they were still freckled with the blood of the Chihuahua demons and the dirt from this tunnel-like maze. Sonic was currently trying to put up with Amy fussing over his quills, and Fliara simply couldn't get the viscous demon blood out of her hair. It was quite a dilemma.

"Why couldn't they talk about- ow!" Sonic protested as Amy accidentally pulled on his quills with the brush. She gasped lightly in apology, and stroked her hand over his quills in guilt. " ...Whatever they're talking about in front of us?"

Knuckles shrugged, and leaned back against the wall.

"I have no idea- maybe it's something kind of embarrassing." He suggested. "Maybe she's trying to get him to leave her alone."

Sonic's eyes widened slightly, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "Everyone leaves Alexi alone. If she thinks Shadow is doing anything differently, Alexi is even more demented and paranoid than we thought." He argued, reclining back into Amy's arms. She put down the brush, finding herself satisfied with the status of Sonic's quills, and added to the conversation.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. Shadow's always trying to get close to her and talk to her- I think he might have affection for her." Amy said. Fliara, at hearing this, sat up abruptly.

"Shadow and Alexi? ...It just wouldn't work. Alexi is too messed up in the head- the poor guy would be wasting his time." The dragon stated. Knuckles shifted his weight.

"I don't know- people change, Fliara. Maybe if Shadow tries hard enough, he might make Alexi..." The marsupial paused, trying to find the right word.

"Normal?" Asked Fliara.

"Happy?" Offered Sonic.

"Less apathetic?" Suggested Amy.

Knuckles thought it over, and shook his head.

"In a way, yeah... I think Shadow would love Alexi because he feels guilty. I mean the only reason she isn't a happy little snow leopard living it up in the Himalayans is that the humans wanted to create him. I don't quite think he wants her to be _normal_ exactly, but yeah, I think it would make him very happy if Alexi could actually feel something besides 'me want die now'." Knuckles explained, satisfied as he got a few laughs from his friends.

"I don't think that's ever going to happen." Laughed Sonic. "...So that's probably why Alexi wanted to talk to him: to get the notion out of his head." The blue hedgehog looked down the hall, to see the tiny speck of light that represented Shadow and Alexi.

"I just hope he takes it well."

* * *

"You're a liar! That can't be true!" Shouted the black hedgehog, backing away in disbelief. Alexi's expression softened just slightly, and she took a step towards the hedgehog.

"It is true, Shadow. Sonic thinks he's 17- he's wrong. His birthday is really on December 1st- not July, as he believes. And the truth is that you are his father, Shadow. There is no denying it- if you doubt what I say, go get DNA evidence when this is over. It won't tell you anything different." She said.

Shadow paused, and something clicked in his head. Sonic's birthday... how could Alexi have known that as well, if she was telling the truth? He filed through a few explanations, when finally he found one that made sense... but he didn't want to believe it! It couldn't be true!

"...What else would it tell me, Alexi?" He asked, his gaze hardening. "...How did you know his birthday? How would you know any of this? How can I believe what you're saying to me!" Shadow demanded. Alexi paused, then sighed. So he had considered the truth- other wise he wouldn't be asking these questions. She hesitated before telling him this; he would not believe her, or at least not admit to believing. Oh well; that was one thing that Alexi found she didn't care about.

"The reason I am able to tell you these things is because..." She paused for emphasis, and enjoyed watching Shadow squirm uncomfortably at the suspense.

"Just tell me." He growled; fed up with her stalling. Alexi grinned.

"I am Sonic's mother."

The words took their time sinking in- and as expected, Shadow did not believe her. He didn't take it very well. The hedgehog gaped and stumbled back, his expression forming into shock, disgust and anger.

"No!" He protested. "Alexi, stop it! This isn't funny!" The hedgehog once again backed away, the torch in his hand shaking along with his arm. Alexi's gaze grew more intense; the hedgehog's reaction was starting to concern her.

...Wait a minute- what? No, concern wasn't the word. Aggravate- that was more like it. Shadow was beginning to aggravate her. She scoffed- it wasn't the first time.

"It's not funny because it's not a joke, Shadow." She offered. It might take him a while to believe her.

"You're a liar!" He snapped. "You're a Goddamned liar!" Alexi sighed, and turned a cold gaze in his direction.

"And what does that make you? A saint? What exactly is so hard to accept? You fight so hard for things you just can't have, Shadow. Give up- you can't change what you've done. Stop trying to be such a hero. You're never going to 'fix' me. I'm broken for good- don't make the same mistake twice." She lectured. Shadow stared at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" He snapped. "You're lying! I hate you!" The leopard chuckled darkly.

"Don't play dumb, Shadow. I wish I could say it didn't suit you, but that would be a lie."

**"STOP IT!" **Yelled the hedgehog- and Alexi grew quiet. The entire hedgehog's body was shaking violently- probably trying to contain his frustration, and the leopard could tell that she had gone a little too far. She grinned; it was good to see his usually compassionate attitude crushed.

"...I don't know what you think you're doing, Alexi; but stop it. Right now." He growled, pointing the torch threateningly at her. "I'm not going to fall for whatever sick mind game you're pulling so cut it out and leave me alone."

The leopard sighed. Well, it was still a better reaction than what she had expected. Oh well- if she knew Shadow, then his curiosity about his past would drive him to check DNA evidence as she recommended- and then he would know the truth. But for now, she really shouldn't have expected him to believe her and might take precaution not to speak to him until he had calmed down. Even if Alexi could not be 'killed', she could still be injured by anything that wouldn't break the skin or bones, and didn't want to go through an unnecessary handful of aches and pains. Although Alexi had talents in battle, Shadow had something she never would- motivation. And thusly, he would do more damage to her than she would to him. The leopard scoffed lightly to herself at these thoughts. Just great- not only was she a monster, but now she was weaker than Shadow. What was more pathetic?

"Fine." She answered, walking past the hedgehog and towards the others, sitting further down the hall. "You win, Shadow. But if you have any questions- I have been rather bored lately. It's fun, watching you squirm..." She cackled. Shadow shuddered and glared after her.

"I hate you." He snapped, running ahead of her and soon meeting up with his friends. Alexi sighed, and stared at the group before her for a moment. She knew he didn't mean it, but it was still slightly unsettling to hear, for whatever reason...

It dawned on her, why she had told Shadow what she had. Something the hedgehog himself had said to her...

_"Maria never told me how to kill you."_

She didn't believe that. How could he have learned nearly every other aspect of her being and not be told of the method of her destruction- if his precious, motherly 'Maria' was so concerned about his safety, than why wouldn't she tell Shadow how to kill something that was a threat to him? Unless of course she didn't know; and Alexi knew that wasn't true. Gerald Robotnik had supervised the creation of many if not all creatures in project Shadow- there was a way to kill her and she knew it. If Shadow didn't remember, than she would just have to make him remember. And that could only be done by two means:

One- telling him everything she knew about his past, resulting in complete recall. But Alexi had just given her best attempt- and that didn't work very well. The second option would be to find some sort of physical object to remind him of what he had forgotten. But nothing came to mind: and if Shadow wasn't affected by what she had just said, nothing would affect him. So her efforts were once again wasted. What a damn shame.

She again stared at the group of people standing a handful of meters before her and sighed. Not one more step towards her goal of self-destruction- even after 79 years.

What in the world was taking so long?

* * *

"What in the world is taking her so long?" Demanded Sonic, tapping his foot impatiently as he leaned into Amy for support. He was getting stronger now, and could support more of his own weight by the minute. Shadow, ignoring his question entirely, stormed past the group and walked further into the labyrinth, taking care to push Fliara over as he passed. The dragon jumped to her feet and growled, about to pursuit in some form of retaliation- but Knuckles held her back.

"Give him some space, Fliara. He doesn't mean it- he's just angry." The echidna offered quietly, making sure that Shadow himself couldn't hear. Although by now he probably could have shouted and not gotten across to the hedgehog- Shadow had continued his angered walking through the hall and was now many meters ahead of the group.

"...What's up with him?" Asked Sonic, staring down the hall as Shadow continued to gain distance. Amy shrugged.

"Well, I don't know, but it's safe to say he didn't like what Alexi told him." She sighed, helping Sonic gain his balance and starting down the hall after Shadow. Knuckles and Fliara at first followed, but soon the red echidna turned back to look at Alexi- she was still a little farther behind.

"Should we wait for her to catch up?" He asked. Sonic scoffed.

"It's _Alexi,_ Knuckles. If she wants to walk with us, she'll walk with us. If she doesn't, stay the hell away from her." He joked, making the 'crazy' gesture towards the blue leopard. Knuckles sighed, and looked up ahead at Shadow, who was keeping an even distance of three meters from the rest of the group- which was also six meters from Alexi.

"And Shadow? He'll slow down if he wants to?" He offered. Sonic nodded.

"And he's not psycho enough to try and kill you just for talking to him."

"Who's psycho, now?" Came a voice from behind Sonic, and the blue hedgehog froze, turning around quickly inside Amy's arms to look the leopard in the face.

"H-hi, Alexi!" The blue hedgehog offered. Alexi sighed in disgust and shook her head. "...How'd you get up here so fast?"

Alexi ignored him, and kept walking at just enough speed to keep up with the group. All the while she stared at Shadow, and the surrounding heroes couldn't help but notice.

* * *

It hadn't been very long since the incident with Shadow and Alexi came to an end. Perhaps an hour or two- and the heroes had gone one level further into the labyrinth- or so Fliara's book had said. All in all the details available about this place were scarce and unreliable- but there had been a handful that had gotten them this far, and they could only hope there was more where they came from.

Shadow was still walking ahead of the rest of the group, and when asked Alexi would reply 'Because he's mad at me'. Asking twice would obtain you some bruises, so the heroes refrained from it and walked uneventfully through the dark halls. Actually, walked is not the word, since they were more inching cautiously through the cobblestone tunnels than making any actual progress. Running through these halls could and would draw attention to thousands of unwanted things- and although it would have saved time it was important to move as slowly as possible.

However, Fliara found some way to move through the halls even slower- and soon stopped altogether. The group turned to stare at her and the dragon looked between them.

"Does anyone else hear that?" She asked. The group paid special attention to the silence around them- and discovered she was right. A steady, quiet dripping sounded from what seem like only meters away- but on either side there was only the darkened hall.

"What is it?" Sonic asked, looking around more carefully this time. "I-It sounds like water... "

Fliara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, before sticking a forked tongue at him.

"Phhp. Oh no, water!" She grumbled sarcastically. "What ever shall we do?"

"You know- your body is actually 80 percent water, Sonic." Knuckles added. The blue hedgehog glared, and pulled himself closer to Amy.

"I'm not scared of water;" He began, aiming a very venomous glance at Fliara. "I'm scared of swimming. And with Amy here, I won't have to, so I'm _not_ scared!" Sonic concluded, although he jumped slightly at the next _drip_ of the nearby water, wherever it was.

"If only Rouge was here, she could use sonar and figure out where it is... it might be a shortcut." Knuckles stated.

"Or a horrible trap that will kill us all!" Suggested Sonic, nearly cutting off Amy's air supply as he clung to her waist. Unintentionally, of course- his real attention was focused on glaring at Fliara and Knuckles, still mad that they were trying to poke fun at him. I'll let you know that fun is sharp and pointy, and can be quite lethal if it pierces the skin.

"The only thing we have to worry about are the demons, Sonic- and they haven't shone their faces for a while... " Fliara agued. "Hmm, now that you mention it- I haven't seen half the demons described in the book. I wonder where they are?"

Sonic let go of Amy's waist slightly, and stood a bit straighter than before.

"Y- ...you mean the hunter spirits?" He asked. "Those things that were after me? ...They... they could be here?"

The dragon's eyes widened, and she shook her head.

"Worse than that, Sonic. From what this book describes, the first shamans didn't run into a second gate for weeks. We're halfway to the third and it's only been a handful of days." Fliara mused. "...I don't know what's going on, but we have to keep our guard up. We can't be sure of what Dan-Chilack is planning." The dragon said.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed before the group, and Shadow (who had been walking ahead and was previously unaccounted for) appeared before them. He fell to the stone ground and stood up abruptly, turning to his friends.

"Guys," he began, panting in exhaustion. "You _have_ to see this!"

* * *

Well, sorry for the jumpy chapter- and please feel free to demand answers to any questions you have about the whole 'Shadow-Sonic-Alexi' thing. That plot twist will be explored more throughout the story, and trust me Shadow won't like what he finds out- neither will Alexi. Sonic is still oblivious, but he will know sometime in the future. If you have any suggestions as what you would like to see incorporated into this plot-twist, do send it in your review! I get some of my best ideas from reviewers! 

Also- lo and behold, does Dan-Chilack have a plan? An _evil_ plan? I sure hope so!

And what did Shadow find while walking ahead of the rest of the group? Is it good or bad news?

Tune in next time to find out!


	15. You can stop mailing me for updates now

Hello, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to chapter 15! (Loud music plays) It is late but it is lengthy- 7726 words long!

-Ahem- Anyway, here it is. Read it, review it, love it, send me great sums of money, rinse, repeat, and leave in the sun to dry. No batteries required.

* * *

"What do you think it is, Fliara?"

It was a fitting question, for Shadow, at the time, certainly didn't know what it was and the dragon was the next best bet for information. In addition, the 'it' in question was astoundingly obtrusive to it's enveloping environment- it's identity needed to be known.

The cobblestone halls that the group had trod through day after day had come to an abrupt halt, and in between the two ends of the interrupted pathway was a room, rectangular in shape and as deep and wide as a gymnasium. In other words, the road had led them to a large room, the entrance to the hall- and the rest of the labyrinth- on the other side. But the room was not entirely unsuspicious; it was a pool. The entire room- whose floor seemed to be submersed in an unfathomable depth of water (That's a pun. You will laugh now.) - Was filled with H20.

The surface was uncannily calm and glassy, and would have been mistaken for a solid walkway if not for the slight ripples, caused by dripping of water from an open-ended pipe jutting out from the left-hand wall. Apparently this pipe had been used to fill the room a long time beforehand- but now it appeared unused, it's surface coated in rust.

Shadow walked outside the perimeter of the hall- for a small platform jutted about a meter across the water- and knelt down at the edge, cautiously dipping his finger into the water and then pulling it back out with equal caution. The ripples caused by his movements traveled slowly over the surface of the water, doubled back on themselves twice, then disappeared as their motion had been absorbed by the stone.

"It looks just like normal water to me." He commented. "I don't think there's anything dangerous about it- we should be able to swim across. I don't think we should try drinking any of it though; who knows what Dan-Chilack _couldn't_ have done to this water." The hedgehog then stood up, and faced his comrades. "Fliara, what is this thing doing here? It's not providing much of a hindrance, so what could it serve in Dan-Chilack's plan?"

The dragon sighed, and held a claw to her chin, placing the other hand on her elbow.

"It didn't say anything about the pool in the books. But then again we are at the point where the shaman stopped writing down a lot of the things they saw- and who knows if this building's layout is the same as the last one." She spread out her wings and glided over to the platform where Shadow stood, kneeling down to examine the water as she landed. "As for why it's here and what we should do about it- I think it's probably just some form of water sanitation or maybe irrigation. I doubt that Dan-chilack has a huge necessity for clean water and even if he does all this could possibly be, at worst, a waste disposal." The dragon turned around and sat down, facing her comrades. "But then again I don't think ghosts and demons would even have use for that- most of them only have physical bodies when they're attacking and I'm not sure they even give off any material byproducts."

She stood up and sighed heavily, letting her wings droop.

"In short- I have no idea why the hell it's here- but I think that we should just get through and not worry about it too much." She concluded, turning back around and walking towards the pool.

"W-wait a minute, Fliara! This could be a trap! Something could be living down there; don't you think we should approach a bit more cautiously?" Knuckles asked, reaching out a gloved hand in attempts to hold her back.

"Don't be silly!" The dragon replied with a grin, pivoting around on her left foot before Knuckles could grasp her arm. "There's nothing in that pool! Look how smooth the surface is! If there was anything down there, it would at least have to breathe, and even that would put enough disturbance on the water to let us know." She reassured him, placing her claws on her hips and smiling confidently- more confidently than she ever had before. Fliara rarely took the opportunity to feel 100 percent sure on anything, always depending on that 1 percent possibility that she could be wrong- reminding herself of her own mortality. But now she was completely sure, and Knuckles took that as a _very_ good sign, with how cautious she usually was.

But still- his instincts were telling him to take every precaution- in a place like this, you had to stay on your toes for any circumstance, and even if Fliara was sure of herself, he was going to go the extra step to determine the safety of the team.

"I still think we should be careful- from what I've seen and heard so far, Dan-Chilack may be predictable but he's not stupid to put something so frivolous in our way that won't serve his cause." He argued. Fliara groaned, and hung her head.

"Aww, Knux! That isn't fair: you're using my own words against me!" She commented, scuffing her heel against the ground. "I know, I'm always saying 'look before you leap' and everything but I've looked and it's safe!" She declared. Knuckles' gaze hardened, and Fliara chuckled nervously, realizing he wasn't convinced.

"Fine, I'll go check it out and prove I'm right." She said, walking to the edge of the platform and warming up her wings, rotating them in their sockets. Knuckles grinned smugly, and shook his head.

"I bet my gloves that something's going to go wrong and we'll have to save your sorry hide." He commented, wagging a finger at the dragon. She matched his smug grin with a fanged one of her own, and turned to meet his gaze.

"Well I bet the hair on my head that there's nothing wrong!" She shot back, still grinning. She took a running start at the platform and jumped into the air, taking flight as she glided across the pool. She fluttered over to the other side of the large gap, and landed, turning to look back at her friends. The dragon waved.

"I hope you're not getting to attach to those gloves, Knux!" She joked, jumping back into the air again, this time making a point to zigzag over the surface.

Sonic stared uneasily out at the huge quantity of water, and even more concerned at the dragon flying leisurely above it.

"This really isn't like Fliara... I've never known her to bet on anything- she usually only goes for the option that's absolutely certain to be true." He said, staring discontentedly out at the dragon. Amy's eyes widened and she looked down at the hedgehog. It was normal for Sonic to criticize Fliara but his tone seemed almost concerned.

"Well maybe she's absolutely certain about it. Have some faith in her; she's not all that bad." She suggested, making a point to ruffle his quills when she was finished. He was acting too seriously- she could tell that the hedgehog needed to lighten up. Sonic smiled back up at her and returned the affection with a hug, at which he left his arms hanging around her shoulders.

"No, I mean just how she's acting. It's weird, you know... " he commented. Sonic once again looked out at Fliara, who was still fluttering over the water. The disturbance in the air, created by the flapping of her wings, caused the surface to waver and ripple, which made Sonic uneasy. "Okay, dragon-girl: stop showing off! Come on, get back here and fly us all across!" He requested. The dragon paused and hovered halfway between the two halls, grinning as she placed her claws once again on her hips.

"What's wrong, are you too scared to swim?" She replied with a fanged grin.

A slight rustle was heard from behind the group, and surprisingly Alexi stepped closer to the water's edge, glaring at the dragon.

"You know the others don't trust that water- and with good reason. You're the only one who can fly, so stop acting so weird, Fliara, and get them across." The leopard added. Shadow looked back at her- still mad at what she had said to him- but lightly surprised.

"You know; it wouldn't hurt for you to actually associate yourself to us once in a while. You're not _that _powerful, you shameless, lying, b-"

"Itch-that's it! 5 down is itch!" Knuckles exclaimed, filling in a blank spot on his crossword puzzle. The surrounding heroes at first stared at him quizzically, but then turned to the matter at hand.

"It's perfectly safe, I'm sure!" Said Fliara, not hearing the argument between Shadow and Alexi. "Watch, I'll prove it..." She trailed off, letting the motion of her wings slow...

Knuckles dropped the previously mentioned crossword puzzle, and glared out at his scaly sister.

"Don't do it, Fliara!" Shouted Knuckles, before the dragon submerged herself in the water. She swam around a little before treading water in the middle of the pool, staring back at her friends.

"Don't worry, Knuckles, I'm fine!" She said, jumping back out of the water and hovering. "Now why don't you guys swim across and we can get to the-"

There was a huge roar, and the water erupted as a tentacle burst from the previously calm surface. The black limb coiled itself quickly around the dragon before she had time to react, and dragged her into the water with another resounding splash.

"FLIARA!" Shouted Knuckles, running to the edge of the pedestal and preparing to jump in the water, before another eruption occurred and the group was sent flying back as a wall of water slammed into them, knocking them a few feet back into the corridor. As the water spread and settled in the labyrinth's halls, the group came too and jumped to their feet, ankle-deep in water.

"W-what happened!" Sputtered Sonic, coughing as Amy helped him to his feet.

"Look out!" Yelled Shadow, pushing Sonic and Amy out of the way as another of the black, octopus-like tentacles sprang from the darkened room before them and into the light of the lantern, (it was a waterproof electric lantern.) attempting to grab one of the team. (The room had been previously illuminated by Fliara, but now she was underwater.)

Missing its previous goal of the two young hedgehogs, it whipped back and seized Shadow in its grasp. The hedgehog cried out in anguish, but was pulled from the vision of the team as more roars of moving water flooded the halls.

"Shadow- you...!" Alexi shouted, taking her pistol and attempting to run into the darkness, when suddenly there was a cry that rang throughout the halls, causing all to stop in their tracks.

"Ahrakha immulihanio!" Came Shadow's voice from the darkness, and immediately the room before them was illuminated with a bright sphere of light, positioned near the ceiling. There came a shrill, beast-like cry. The heroes briefly shielded their eyes but soon turned to look, stunned at what they saw.

Before them, splashing amongst the large pool was a huge monster, nearly indescribable in shape. A spherical turtle shell, black in color, made up it's body while both four fins of a sea turtle and eight arms of an octopus (tail and head not yet accounted for) sprung from twelve holes on the rim of the shell. The tail went for many meters before splitting into the web of a fish's tail fin, (spines running down the length of the limb) and it's head, turtle-shaped, was adorned with many sharp teeth and numerous red eyes, spikes and horns protruding backwards on it's head and neck.

For a second the team was dumbstruck, and stared at the beast in surprise and distress, when it made a point of slapping it's fins onto the water, and lowering it's head as a deep, booming battle cry rang from it's throat. The resounding splash from it's fins sent a good two feet of water flying in all directions, and the force of it nearly dragged the group to their knees. As the water continued to pull on their legs and push them further from the battle scene, Knuckles took the opportunity to ram his shovel-claws into the stone wall. Immediately he had a sound grip on the terrain and reached a hand out to Sonic and Amy, who were nearly getting swept away by the current. The blue hedgehog grabbed his hand and soon the two were gaining their footing as well.

"Are you okay?" Knuckles shouted over another war cry, as the beast now scooped water in it's two front turtle fins and propelled it towards the hall- once again bombarding the team with water. Once it had flown far enough down the hall that our heroes were not submerged, Sonic shook the water from his quills and replied.

"I think we're fine for now!" He yelled back, for the roar of the water was nearly deafening. Knuckles looked from Sonic, to Amy, and then to Alexi, who was hanging on to a rock that jutted from the wall.

"Alexi! Come over he-" He began, before the leopard jumped away from the rock and ran up the flooded hall to the room. The echidna stood there, wet, constantly bombarded by water, and trying to cling to the rock wall- confused as to why Alexi was doing this.

As the leopard neared the pedestal where the group had previously stood, she once again took out her pistol and shot towards the turtle-demon, causing it to flinch before it could bombard the team with another wall-sized-wave. She then quickly looked around, spotting Fliara and Shadow- who were gripped in the turtle's tentacles. As she aimed her gun for the limb that held Shadow, however, blasts of the bullet were already heard and it took her a moment to realize Shadow was already shooting at the tentacle. Fairly soon the limb recoiled and dropped the black hedgehog into the turbulent waves, at which Alexi took no hesitance to jump in after him.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was 'climbing' arm-length by arm-length up the tunnel while fighting back the attempts, however distracted by Alexi and Shadow they were, to drive them back. Although the assaults of waves were diminishing drastically, motion was still difficult and it wasn't helped by the fact that he was carrying the weight of three people: Sonic, Amy and himself. The noise and chaos of it all was unnerving and it was getting difficult to concentrate over the roar of waves. He struggled further up the hall.

Alexi quickly seized the black hedgehog and swam quickly to her left as one of the beast's tentacles slammed into the water after her. Her eyes widened in acknowledgement as the tentacle curled upwards and started making its way towards the pair once again, attempting to grab them.

The leopard reacted quickly, and although it was difficult to see and move under the murky water, she swung her feet to face the tentacle. As it moved to grab them, she slammed her heel through the water and against the limb, propelling her towards the surface and the limb to the ground.

Alexi used the momentum from the kick to swim her way over to the pedestal- but the Turtle, previously preoccupied with Fliara (who was struggling, but unable to use her fire, had no way out) noticed the two. Turning with another cry, it attempted to slam them against the wall with its fin.

Shadow caught sight of it before Alexi did, and although slightly disoriented he was able to aim his gun at the turtle's head and distract it. Immediately the fin gave up its pursuit and raised to act as a shield, as bullets bounced off the thick hide of it's shell and fins. The black hedgehog scowled. Was there no way to beat this thing?

As Alexi climbed onto the pedestal and dropped Shadow onto the stone, the two quickly stood and turned around to see the beast recoiling slightly, still holding it's fin to it's head. Finally, after it seemed to recover from the attack, it slammed the fin back into the water and straightened its lengthy neck (about the length of its shell) in another war cry, which caused the heroes to flinch and cover their ears. It was insanely loud and every time it seemed to get louder.

"I used an illumination spell that was in one of Fliara's books!" Shadow yelled. He turned and looked behind him at Knuckles and the others, who were in range of the battle now that the waves had stopped. "But I don't know how we can stop this thing!"

"Where's Fliara?" Demanded Knuckles, letting go of Sonic and Amy as he ran onto the pedestal. If another wave came, he could just dig his gloves into the stone and this time no one would get swept away. Alexi looked between Shadow and Knuckles, and then at the beast, whose head was swaying back and forth as it observed its prey.

A tentacle lunged out to grab them, but Alexi whipped out her knife and stabbed it hilt-deep into the limb, causing it to jolt back, at an alarming rate, to it's shell. The demon drew back a little, not as eager to make the first move.

"That demon has her! The last I saw of her, she was grasped in one of the tentacles!" The leopard answered, taking out her gun and again shooting at the turtle's head, which caused it to go back to the defensive stance, it's limbs swaying at the ready. "I don't think she's hurt, but if you want to let it stay that way, Knuckles, it's best that we take this thing down before it gets the chance!"

Shadow looked up and down the beast, trying to glance a weak point, when he saw an area of discolored water- caused from blood- leaking from the stab wound on it's front-left octopus limb. He stood there, motionless, for a second, but then grinned. Of course!

"Guys! I have a plan!" He announced. Quickly, he handed his extra pistol to Sonic, and then gave Knuckles a belt-full of grenades. The red echidna stared down at them blankly, but then quickly looked up as the turtle gave another loud, fog-horn like cry, it's fin again in the attacking position and it's tentacles waving madly.

"Do you mind telling us this 'amazing' plan?" Growled Alexi, trying to aim her gun at the tentacles, but basically firing bullets into the wall behind them. "Gah! It's too fast! I can't get a good shot!"

"Don't waste your ammo!" Shadow declared, reaching into his pack and pulling out a flare gun. "Fliara packed this in case the group got separated. But I have a different idea." He declared, clipping it to his glove. "Sonic, you stay here and fire at the turtle's head every time it tries to put its fins back in the water! That will keep it's front fins busy- we won't have to worry about the waves. Knuckles, you get on the turtles back and try to distract some of the tentacles- use those grenades as you please! Meanwhile, Alexi and Amy will handle the other fins! Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing! But when I give the signal, Sonic, STOP FIRING! It dos one of those war-cries every time it goes off defensive, and this time I'll be ready for it!" He declared, loading the flare gun. "Everybody got that?"

"I don't want Sonic to be fighting! Not in his condition!" Amy yelled. Shadow turned to her, his gaze stern.

"He'll be fine as long as he stays here on the platform! Besides, Amy, you're the best swimmer here and we need you in the battle!" The black hedgehog elaborated, turning back to face the turtle.

Amy looked with concerned eyes from the form of the hideous beast to the slightly trembling body of Sonic, a gun in his hand and a sad, confused, and yet strangely determined expression on his face. Even if she didn't like it, she knew that Shadow was right, at least in this scenario. She kneeled down next to him and gave the hedgehog a brief hug, ignoring the noises of the water, the demon and her friends.

"Promise me nothing will happen to you." She requested before standing and staring down at him as she awaited an answer. There wasn't much time; already the monster was preparing to make its next move. Sonic briefly nodded and she sighed, giving him a very quick kiss on the forehead before running up to the platform.

"I'm going in, Shadow!" She announced, diving into the water. Shadow nodded and quickly turned to the others as the turtle slapped its fin back into the depths, screaming once again.

"Let's go!" He announced. Sonic immediately aimed the gun at the turtle's head, and after one bullet connected its fins shot up from the water to guard itself. Why it could not draw its head within its shell was beyond him; but then again sea turtles did not have that ability either. Knuckles and Alexi dived into the water and swam to the sides of the demon, jumping onto its shell to join Amy. They hesitated momentarily, for Shadow hadn't moved yet.

"What are you doing?" Knuckles demanded, jamming his spiked fist into a soft spot between the plates on the turtles back. The beast gave a shriek and almost immediately a tentacle sprung form the water and plucked him from its back, slamming Knuckles down into the water. But as it lifted the echidna back up and prepared to throw him against the near-bye stone wall, Knuckles jammed his fist into the limb, causing it to release him. The echidna fell onto the turtle's back, relatively unharmed.

"I'll be back in a second! Get all of those tentacles out of the water!" Shadow declared, turning around and running... down the hall away from the battle? Alexi looked up from the octopus limb she had been stabbing (it was trying to grab her) and her eyes narrowed threateningly.

"What do you think you're doing, Shadow?" She yelled, tearing the blade out and jumping backwards, further up the turtle's back. The other tentacle that had been trying to swipe at her tore through thin air- but the third one caught her around the waist. The leopard 'teleported' (burst into flame -small particles- and reassembled somewhere else. Think of night crawler from X-men only with more fire. Yeah. You now understand.) And reappeared back on the turtle shell.

Amy Rose was having similar luck. Her amazing, flying, infinite supply of hammers was more than enough to keep one or two of the limbs in check, but there were too many and every so often she'd get picked up and thrown somewhere.

"We don't enjoy being left in the dark, Shadow!" She shouted, having to agree with Alexi on this one. No response came from the darkened halls, and She shook her head, turning back to the task at hand- kicking major aquatic demon but. Or at least trying- it was much easier said than done.

"Forget him!" Knuckles exclaimed, picking a grenade from his belt and throwing it at the farthest tentacle. It stuck to one of the suction-cups and exploded seconds after impact, leaving a half-exploded stump. The turtle screamed, lowered its fin and went crazy, all it's limbs flinging through the air. Try as they might- the heroes could no longer get a good aim on anything- it was moving around too much.

Suddenly, the demon's motions stopped momentarily, before it slammed all the limbs on one side of its body down, and lifted all the limbs on the other side up. It took Alexi, knuckles and Amy a second to catch on, but they jumped off the turtle as it rolled over in the water, coming to a stop after it's complete 360 degree barrel roll was finished. Thankfully, Sonic shot at it before it could give the others any more attention, and its front fins were preoccupied once more.

Knuckles paddled his way back onto the creature's shell- and looked around for any sight of Amy and Alexi. The leopard and hedgehog were fine, as he discovered, but he also saw a portion of red floating off in the southwest corner of the room.

"Fliara!" He shouted, preparing to swim out to her. Before he could jump off the turtle's shell, however, one of the seven remaining tentacles slammed into him like a baseball bat- and had a similar effect. The echidna was sent flying and splashed into the water on the opposite side of the large room. In comparison to the turtle, which was give or take the size of two commercial busses, the room was probably three or four 'turtles' wide and six to seven turtles long. In synopsis: it was big, and the echidna did not enjoy being flung so far.

The turtle reached out and pulled Fliara' s motionless body back into it's grasp.

"She'll be okay- we'll get a hold of her later!" Shouted Amy. "Come on- use those grenades!"

Knuckles nodded and jumped from the water, gliding, and once he came close enough he threw a grenade at the nearest fin.

However, the turtle batted the grenade away before it could detonate, and the grenade exploded harmlessly on the stone wall to the group's left.

"Damn!" Knuckles exclaimed before ending his glide and landing feet-first on the turtle's shell. The problem was that if the grenade didn't detonate before the turtle could get it away, then he might as well be shooting in the dark. He'd need to wait before throwing this time- if the side of the tentacle with suction-cups was facing him then the odds were it would work this time. But how was he going to do that- the only way to get close enough to be sure would be...

Knuckles' eyes lit up in discovery and he ran to the side of the turtle shell, grabbing on to the base of a tentacle.

Amy, after smashing one of the lengthy limbs with her hammer, noticed what he was doing, and wasn't at all happy with the discovery.

"Knuckles! Get away from there before it grabs you!" She shouted, swatting away another one of the tentacles. Knuckles ignored her, and didn't resist as the tentacle sprang form the water and wrapped itself around him, preparing to throw him again.

The red echidna reacted quickly, and, ignoring the pain, stuck the grenade on one of the tentacles, then slamming his Knuckles into the limb and pulling the pin from it's place. The result; Knuckles was dropped in the water. As another tentacle struggled to get the grenade off, it exploded, leaving both limbs immobilized and bloody.

Meanwhile, Shadow stood about ten meters away from the battle, standing motionless in the dark hall. It was about time his plan went into action.

"Stop firing!" He yelled to Sonic, who turned to look at him before nodding, and placing the gun on the ground. Shadow then started up a run- a slow one, to both build up momentum and make sure he didn't get there before...

The turtle, seeing Sonic's efforts halted, once again slammed its fin against the water and lowered it's head, preparing to scream out another war-cry.

But this time- Shadow was ready for it.

The black hedgehog jumped from the platform and onto the turtle's head, almost falling off as it's yanked it's head back in surprise, aware that an unwanted guest was currently seeking residence on top of its skull. Shadow gripped one of the horns sprouting from the back of it's head and held on- the turtle shook violently, even thrust it's head into the water in attempts to _get Shadow OFF!_

"What is he doing?" Demanded Amy, about to fight off the tentacles before a great majority of them sprung to the turtle's head, clawing and pulling on Shadow, attempting to rip him to shreds. Before long, all visibility of the hedgehog was gone, and this was not taken well by the rest of the group.

"SHADOW!" Yelled Alexi, eyes darting around for any site of him; but it was all a mess of tentacles, fins and teeth.

Suddenly, a loud 'bang!' rang through the room, and the turtle gave a brief and abrupt cry. Suddenly, all motion of the limbs stopped, and the tentacles fell to the water, revealing Shadow hanging onto the horn at the base of the turtle's chin- the flare gun pointed straight into it's throat, towards it's brain, and smoking from the last time it was fired.

Loud pops sounded as the flare detonated from somewhere within the turtle's skull- and with a last shrill cry and a violent shudder- the turtle finally and completely died.

The group stood in near disbelief- their gazes of awe slowly being replaced by sighs of relief. The turtle completely collapsed as all neurological function ceased- its head, along with Shadow, falling slowly into the water. It's limbs, fins and tail sunk to a non-functioning position and the shell slowly lowered into the sea as it's lungs and stomach took on water from it's gaping, dead mouth. It continued to sink like a rock, its previously bright eyes now lost in the depths.

Shadow floated there, on the surface, only feet from where the turtle had rested its head and died. He stared down, as finally the corpse of the beast was lost in the darkness, probably hundreds of feet below them. The pool must have been very deep.

For some strange reason, Shadow felt a sense of loss. In the exhilaration of battle, he hadn't considered what he would feel like afterwards- he hadn't suspected. It was a strange feeling- he wasn't sure how he could feel sad and apathetic at the same time- but for a strange reason, the monster's death had that effect on him.

The group had already jumped off and they now floated on the surface of the water, staring at the empty space left in the beast's absence. Sonic gave a quite audible sigh of relief, and nearly collapsed against the stone wall next to him, a small laugh rising from his throat.

"...We did it." He sighed- this battle had been particularly draining for him. "...We did it. It's really dead."

For a second the heroes nodded, when suddenly, Knuckles spun around in the water, his expression alarmed.

"Wait!" He shouted, catching the attention of the other heroes. "Fliara! Where's Fliara!"

Their eyes widened and they looked amongst each other, shocked- he was right! Where was she?

"Y- you don't think..." Shadow began, looking into the depths. Had the turtle dragged her down with it?

The echidna's expression grew more frantic at Shadow's words. "Fliara!" Knuckles called out, looking to all corners of the room.

Suddenly, a gasp was heard as Fliara surfaced a few meters away, panting for air as she flapped her wings, struggling to get out of the water.

"Fliara!" The echidna exclaimed; afterwards swimming like lighting towards her, and grabbing the dragon by her shoulders. "Fliara, how dare you! I _told_ you to be careful!" He shouted. "Just what did you think you were doing! Fliara, if I ever catch you doing something so careless ever again... I..." Knuckles slowed, at a loss for words, just shaking his head sadly at the dragon, exhausted from the battle.

"...Knuckles?" She asked, looking up at her brother, slightly ashamed. He was caught of guard, and tried to keep his gaze firm as he glared down at her.

"What?" He asked, releasing the dragon's shoulders and paying more attention to keeping himself afloat. The rest of the group swum a little closer, (except for Sonic) curious to the outcome.

"...You're not going to make me cut my hair, are you?" She asked sheepishly, lowering her gaze to her claws, resting on the water's surface in front of her collarbone.

Knuckles stared at her in disbelief for a few moments... before laughing out loud and seizing his little sister in a hug.

"You...! Ah, for goodness sakes, no, Fliara! Just don't do anything like that again!" He announced.

Amy smiled, for all was well. She turned to look at Sonic, who was sitting, rather exhausted upon the pedestal, leaning into the stone. His half-lidded eyes left the floor they were previously focused on and he looked up at her, returning her smile with one of his own. She swam away from the reunited siblings and pulled herself onto the pedestal where Sonic sat, placing herself next to him. He still leaned against the wall, staring out at the four remaining group members.

"You look tired." She said, surrounding his exhausted body with her own. Sonic smiled lightly and sat up a little straighter, resting his head upon her shoulder. She moved to accommodate to his position- she now sat up straight as Sonic leaned against her.

"...Yeah, a little." He responded, closing his eyes. Amy laughed slightly.

"I think we should set up camp. We need a break after all of that."

* * *

The group now sat around the electric heater, each dwelling in their own reaction to the battle. Nearly all were covered in marks from the potently dangerous suction-cups of the turtle's tentacles- and all had bruises aplenty. Sonic was the only one excluded, for he had sat the battle out on the pedestal. But besides him, the group all appeared- physically, anyway- worse for wear. Their fur was matted and scraggly and their wounds seemed to be multiplying in numbers as the days went by. But the important thing was their eyes had found a new light- ...well, most of them, anyway.

Sonic was resting, his head lain upon Amy's lap as she carefully draped a blanket over him, afterwards softly stroking a hand across his arm. The hedgehog had truly exerted himself in the battle, and in addition to his condition it hadn't turned out as well as usual. But the battle was over and now he could relax. He did feel greatly accomplished, though- after about a week of being living, breathing dead weight he was glad to have added to the victory. Sonic was all the happier after the completion of the battle, and achieved renewed strength.

Fliara wasn't out of the doghouse yet for being so careless- as Knuckles clearly defined- and the echidna, although happy she was safe- was still giving her a hard time about it. The dragon was sulking in response to this, and even though a victory had been accomplished, was no better off. The siblings both knew that they were happy for the other's safety- but they did a good job of hiding it. Even so, both Fliara and Knuckles were, inwardly, anyways- happier than when the battle started.

But Shadow was the worst off of all. For some reason a tinge of guilt- for the death of the beast- rang through him. And not only that...

...Shadow dared to let his gaze wander to Alexi. He could have sworn he had heard her scream his name in the battle. And was it not her who dived in after him? Was it possible... that she might have compassion towards him?

But Shadow was not about to forgive her of her lies. If anything, he was suspicious- was she up to her usual mind-games? Perhaps she had merely shown a sliver of concern in order to win over his trust. Alexi was convinced that the secret to her demise was stashed somewhere in the depths of Shadow's forgotten past. He knew that was the only reason she maintained contact with the group, the only reason why they were the ones her blade never found- or more accurately- would try to find. Alexi might not be able to kill any of them- but then again she never slept...

Shadow was caught off-guard when Alexi looked up to find him staring at her. Shadow quickly looked away, his eyes panning across the stone wall to make it seem he hadn't been looking directly at her. He knew she wouldn't fall for it- but he couldn't look her in the eye right now. He might do something that he'd regret.

He was absolutely fumed at her. How could she dare lie about such a sensitive topic...? He hated not knowing what had happened to him in his past- but at least he knew... or he _thought_ he knew... Alexi _must_ be lying.

Shadow looked up, this time at Sonic and Amy.

It was true- Sonic did have a few resemblances to him, mostly the nose, and the ears... And his speed _was_ unusual- no hedgehog with normal parents could have obtained those abilities. Maybe with the assistance of chaos power, but no creature besides specially created beings such as himself could harness that power. But if that was so, then how could Sonic?

..._And his eyes... _Shadow subconsciously thought. _He has Alexi's eyes..._

Shocked at himself, the dark-furred hedgehog cast the thoughts away and shook his head to prevent their return. The last thing he could have done at this moment would to have added to the list of reasons that Alexi's lies made sense. Shadow cursed under his breath and glared at the stone floor. That was the worst thing about Alexi's story- is that it would explain so many things. It had so many opportunities to be right. But then again what reason did Alexi have to tell the truth? Again he was back at square one.

Shadow stood up and looked down the stone hallway, sighing heavily.

"Guys, I'm going to go for a walk. I... I need to be alone for a while..." He explained, picking up a lantern and walking down the hall. The group gave muffled acknowledgements and nodded, but then returned to whatever it was they had been doing beforehand.

He scoffed lightly to himself, but still had to grin. His friends knew from experience that when Shadow wanted to be alone, you left him alone.

Except for Alexi.

Shadow's grin disappeared and he let his gaze fall to his feet as he walked. Damn her- he couldn't get the thought out of his head. ...It was just that... what... what if she was _right_?

No. No. No. No. NO! The day he would start to believe her lies would be the day that he decided to take up ballroom dancing as a hobby. It just _wasn't going to happen_.

Okay, so he didn't need to believe her, but he could still think about it. If Alexi knew anything about his past... then yes, he would like to know about it. That was safe to conclude. And Alexi knew that. That was also safe to conclude. Alexi also wanted Shadow to somehow remember something he wasn't sure he ever knew in the first place- how to kill her. It would be ...logical, he had to admit... for her to tell him something- possibly try to get on his good side, so that if he knew or ever would know, he would tell her. It was probably the same logic that caused Alexi to put an end to her killing sprees, and join the group.

But Shadow wasn't sure that he would tell her- if he knew- how to kill herself. Because... and he hated admitting this... a part of him wanted her to live.

It was very hard to realize that part of him- after those... -those shameless _lies_ she had told... but he couldn't deny it. There was a part of him that cared for... maybe even loved Alexi. Now that wasn't certain, but he had to acknowledge it.

He sighed. So what had he figured out after all of this thinking? Nothing, save what he already knew. Alexi wanted to die, and believed he was the path to her destruction. Shadow wanted her to live, and believed he was guilty for her suffering. It was the reason she followed him and the reason they would always be a part of each other's lives, whether they liked it or not. And at this moment- he definitely- didn't- like it.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard footsteps following close behind him. Shadow stopped, not bothering to turn around. He knew who it was.

"The battle went well, Shadow. Why aren't you celebrating with the other mortals?" Alexi asked, her vivid green eyes burning into the back of his skull. Shadow turned around quickly, and thrust the lantern into her gloved hands, his gaze hardening.

"You're not a god, Alexi. Stop acting like one." He snapped, turning to walk past her.

The leopard caught Shadow's shoulder with her free hand and held him back, at which Shadow spun around, swatting her arm away. He looked down to his shoulder- it was bleeding slightly. Alexi's sharp, claw-like fingernails had scratched him.

"Aren't you going to thank me for saving you?" She growled sarcastically, leaning against the wall and licking the blood off of her fingers. "I could just as easily have let you drown..."

"You couldn't have and we both know it." He snapped. "Now leave me alone. I'm sick of you, Alexi, walking around like we're all pawns in this little war you have with your own soul." He glared. "Whatever it is you want to say, forget about it. I'm not in the mood."

Alexi's grin disappeared, but her gaze was still confident. She walked in front of Shadow, looking him in the eye.

"You want to get away from me, Shadow. You want to run away, because at the moment whether you'd like to admit it or not, you just don't want to deal with me anymore." Her gaze grew more potent. "You're fed up and just want me to go away, right?"

Shadow groaned.

"Yes, that's what I just said, now let me through." The hedgehog argued, moving towards the camp again. Alexi cut him off.

"That's the way I've felt about life for 79 years."

Shadow paused- and then almost moaned in aggravation. This time not at Alexi, but an inward groan at the situation. She was right- he had possibly been a little tough on her. Her life had been turbulent enough as it is and maybe he should give her the benefit of the doubt more often.

...But she didn't have to _lie_ about ..._that_! Alexi... and him- How? ...It didn't work out!

"Alexi, you don't want my pity. Trust me." He began, when Alexi gripped him again by the shoulder, cutting his sentence in half. He paused, staring at her hand. This time, she didn't dig her claws into his skin.

"You're lucky, Shadow." She began. The hedgehog's eyes darted from her hand to her face, and at first he appeared surprised- but then Shadow's gaze once again hardened.

"Why?" He scoffed, still skeptic of her motives. Alexi's expression remained emotionless, and the leopard leaned in, her lips close to Shadow's ear. At first the hedgehog considered pulling away- but he held still- he had to. He supported most of her weight; if he moved they'd both fall down.

"You can run away." She whispered. "I can't. You can deny what I've told you. I can't." Shadow's eyes widened as Alexi pulled away and began heading back towards camp. He then glared, and stormed ahead of her, purposefully trying to stay as far away from her as possible.

"The next time you start trailing on with those lies, I'm going to personally grant your death wish." He snapped.

The leopard grinned darkly.

"I would sure hope so."

Shadow tried to ignore her and walked faster towards the camp. He never remembered being more angry at the leopard in his entire life. He was about to pick up the pace, when suddenly he stumbled over a depression in the floor, and nearly fell down. Quickly, he spun around to see what he had tripped over, holding the lantern close to the ground.

"What?" Alexi asked simply, hesitating. Shadow briefly looked up at her before turning his gaze back to the floor.

"This- what is it, Alexi?" He asked, sinking to his knees and running his fingers over the three, long depressions in the stone. "They look like claw marks." Shadow concluded, holding the lantern over them.

"Has Fliara been this way?" The leopard suggested, kneeling in front of Shadow. The black hedgehog shook his head.

"No, and besides- not only are her claws not big enough, but she couldn't make a dent as big in stone this hard." He explained. The black hedgehog sighed, and sat down. "...You know what this means, Alexi?"

"I assume you're going to tell me."

"That thing that's following us- it's not a maybe anymore- it knows where we are. And it's here."

* * *

OH THE SUSPENSE! AHH!

Anyway- I think I'm required to point out a few things that don't quite make sense

1. Fliara was acting really weird this entire chapter. I won't tell you why yet...

2. Knuckles had a crossword puzzle because... well... I kind of needed him to have one for that pun. In all truthfulness I shoved it into the dialogue last minute.

3. We still don't know much about the Shalexi thing. I'm going to give that a break for next chapter- but the chapter after that- OMGSECRESTREVEALED!

4. That turtle- what, exactly, was it? You'll find out later!

5. And why in the nine hells did Shadow have grenades, you ask? He smuggled them into his pack when Fliara wasn't looking. Shame onto that scheming little rodent

Okay, that about wraps it up. So long!


	16. Please hit me with something

GAH! ...Okay, someone hit me. Hard, and in the head, and with a shovel. I let this story sit again- and after I had promised not to! I feel awfu.. but his stupid scene wouldn't turn out right!

I had to cut this chapter in half just to update it! On one hand, that's good because it means I'll update the next chapter sooner. On the other hand, it's bad because it means this chapter is SHORT. Well short for one of my chapters, anyway.

I feel so bad... soo, soo, bad... (awaits the shovels...)

By the way- I'm going to be updating a new fanfic. (yes, I know, I can NOT afford to take on another story, and that sequel to 10,000 miles is still due...) but this one was just what I needed to take a break from the Sonic universe. It's a 'Majesty' fanfic. Please, please, please tell my you've played the game and promise to read it. Thank you- keep an eye out for the story later this week. I'm almost finished with chapter one.

* * *

"Okay guys, break's over- let's move!" Shadow yelled, storming onto the campsite, seizing three of the six remaining backpacks and throwing them on top of their respective owners, keeping his own for himself. Amy gave out a startled cry as one of the bags was thrown into her lap and almost onto the head of the half-asleep Sonic, who had previously dozed off while Shadow and Alexi were away. 

Knuckles and Fliara, the only other members of the group, jumped to their feet and glanced from Shadow to the leopard standing behind him. Fliara smiled slightly, and reached for her pack, apparently eager to move foreword in the labyrinth.

The blue hedgehog, having just woken up, sat up uncertainly and rubbed his eyes, looking around at the hysteric scene with the innocence of a child. He pressed closer to Amy and shivered slightly, but the pink hedgehog stood up before he could get a firm hold on her, leaving a cold, tired, and confused Sonic unattended to for a few moments.

"Shadow, what are you talking about?" She snapped, lowering a hand upon Sonic's head to calm him. If you had woken up under the same circumstances, you may need some calling down, too. "We just set up camp- everyone's exhausted!"

Knuckles almost stumbled as Shadow thrust the pack into his gloved hands and turned, without excuse, to the darkness of the hall before him, taking the lantern as he went, almost leaving the rest of the group in darkness. Amy glared and ran ahead, (leaving Sonic alone- GASP!) stopping Shadow in his tracks.

"Answer me! What is going on here!" She demanded, ripping the lantern from Shadow's hands and holding it in the direction of Knuckles, Fliara, and Sonic- the latter of which was half-stumbling upright, just out of the lantern's reach, and still not exactly sure what was going on. Fliara took a few hurried steps to the black hedgehog's side.

"We _should_ get moving- but what happened that was so _bad_?" The dragon also requested. Shadow groaned and pointed a finger to the darkness ahead.

"That thing that I thought was following us? Well it's here, Amy. It's here, and if we don't start moving now, we'll never move in the rest of our mortal lives!" He explained- snatching the lantern back and storming off- or attempting too before Amy caught him by the arm.

"At least give us a few seconds! Sonic's in no condition to start a marathon run, and if he-"

"What is it with you and that blue deadweight? Sonic can't do this- Sonic can't do that! Well Sonic better figure out a way to pull his weight around from now on, cause we have to get moving!" He snapped, picking up her pack and thrusting it into her hands.

Sonic's blood boiled at the other hedgehog's words- and he was about to take a step forward, to argue (he could almost walk now if he leaned against the wall) when he stumbled, lightly- not of his own fault, either. A cold, foreboding feeling fell over Sonic, and his eyes widened in shock as the feeling grew more and more familiar. He held a hand to the claw-marks of the ghost's attack, shaking in fear as they began to burn fiercely. Sonic moaned lightly, and staggered to his left- but in the midst of the argument, and since he was out of the lantern's reach, he went unnoticed.

"Don't talk about him like that! We'd do the same thing if it happened to you!" Amy came back fiercely, dropping her pack on the ground.

"Shadow, the whole group is exhausted- how are you even sure this 'monster' is here? You just saw a footprint!" Knuckles shouted, giving Shadow a shove. The black hedgehog shoved back, and Knuckles ended up on the ground.

The pain on Sonic's wounds seemed to double, and it spread along his limbs and into his mind. Sonic wanted to cry out, ask for Amy's help- run to her- but he couldn't move, he couldn't breathe! He fell to his knees, gasping lightly and wondering why no one noticed. He looked up at his friends- arguing, shouting, and yelling...

He saw a dark shape move quickly across the fringe of the lantern's light- then another one. And another one. He felt so weak...

...He looked over at Amy, who was in the middle of a heated argument with Shadow- when his vision started to haze... He looked around in something next to a panic. The ghosts- they were back- he could _feel_ them surrounding him. It was a terrible sensation.

His eyes wandered to Fliara, and at first he was relived to find she had noticed him- but... she was _grinning._ Grinning at his pain, grinning at his arguing friends- grinning darkly into the shadows. _Something was **wrong **here..._

Sonic passed out onto the cobblestone floor, feeling the ghosts draw nearer...

"Stop acting like a-" Amy began, pointing an accusing finger, before a deathly scream breached the silence of the labyrinth, forcing the heroes to fall to their knees and clamp their hands over their ears as the screech rang on. No one noticed that Fliara did not flinch, but drew back into the darkness.

"What is it?" Exclaimed Knuckles, shouting over the declining but still mind-piercing sound. "...Where's Fliara? ...And Sonic?"

At the mention of Sonic's name, Amy's eyes snapped open and she sprung to her feet despite the noise- actually, the sound had ended and was only reflecting echoes now- but still quite present in the heroes' minds.

"Sonic!" She called, nearly hysteric, into the dark. "Sonic!"

Shadow and Alexi staggered to their feet- and a deeper, less agitating shriek rang through the halls. This time, the lantern flickered dangerously, and then began to dim... Shadow noticed, and his eyes widened in shock. If that light went out, you could bet things would start to get a lot worse...

"The battery must be going dead!" Shadow commented. "Alexi, get one from your pack! If we're left in the dark, there's no telling what might happen!"

The leopard, for some reason beyond Shadow's understanding, complied, and leapt to the pack. Shadow paused for a few moments in surprise, but then began opening the battery hatch.

"Sonic!" Amy shouted into the darkness- when there came noises from overhead- the same noises they had heard when they first entered the labyrinth...

"A-Amy!" Came Sonic's voice, distant and weary, from the darkness behind them. Amy gasped, and took off running in his direction, disappearing in the depths.

"Amy, come back!" Exclaimed Knuckles- who was frantically looking around for Fliara. The lantern flickered and dimmed even further- and the noises escalated. "Where's Fliara!"

Shadow grabbed the battery from Alexi as she leapt back to his side, and prepared to replace it. If he could replace the two batteries one at a time, with the lowest power possible, and not turning it off... there could still be hope. He might shock himself, but as long as he had it on a low-voltage setting, it wouldn't hurt that much... Shadow quickly took out one of the batteries and placed in a new one, taking a sharp intake of breath as the lantern flickered for a moment, and the noises grew louder.

"Fliara! Amy!" Shouted Knuckles, staring at the darkness in disbelief. "Sonic! Where are you guys?"

Shadow reached for the second battery- but in one instant, the most horrifying, ear-splitting shriek burst from the walls and the light was immediately extinguished. For a moment our heroes sat, dumfounded, in the dark- before the horrible sound overpowered them, and they passed out.

* * *

About an hour later

* * *

...It took Shadow a moment to realize where he was. For one- it was terribly dark- and for a few strange moments he thought he was back in his room. That was it. He must have woken up in the middle of the night. Alexi was having another one of her fits, and had come to his place to blow off steam- by shouting at him. That woman loved to yell... sometimes, she didn't even make any sense... Shadow knew that she wasn't exactly healthy, though, so he didn't blame her. Or at least he tried not to, but she really knew how to say hurtful things. 

When he didn't hear Alexi- or anything- he became suspicious- when he suddenly remembered everything, and bolted upright, a few beads of cold sweat running down his forehead.

It was _dark. _Shadow had never gotten a good look at the inside of the labyrinth as it was meant to look. _Dark. _You couldn't see anything- but at the same time, it created an immensely peaceful feeling. Without being able to see at all, you relaxed, for some reason. In only mild darkness, shapes could shift and move and create illusions. In pitch black, there were no strange shapes. You could suddenly hear everything, too. Only it was also _quiet_.

The dark and quiet were not _evil_. That wasn't what made the labyrinth so foreboding, he realized. What made it such a threat was that because it was so different from what he had grown accustom to all his life. He had eyes and ears for a reason- to use light and sound to his advantage. It was different, but not evil. What it was being used for was 'evil'.

After a few moments, he realized that he was still holding the lantern and battery in his hand- only the lantern was off- and he quickly shoved the new battery in it and attempted to turn it on. It didn't work, and Shadow swore audibly, staring around at the darkness in frustration.

"Alexi?" He called out, wondering where she was. "Knuckles?"

No answer.

"Fliara? Amy?" He paused, and looked around "...Sonic?"

He was only met with silence, and the black-furred hedgehog sighed, rising slowly to his feet.

"...I guess I'm all alone, then, huh?" He mumbled to himself. He still had on his backpack from before he and the others passed out- so he reached into the pocket and took out the chaos emerald he had brought. Fliara had told him not to bring it, for Dan-Chilack could use it for great evil- but he had to bring it along anyway, for the occasional emergency chaos-control, as he had done back when he found the pool. He couldn't have used it in the fight, though- he had read about what happened if you tried to use chaos power on demons, and besides, he couldn't let Fliara see that he had brought it- she would have gone hysteric. Hysteric-_err_ might be a more appropriate word. If he had ever met the most obsessive workaholic on the planet, it was Fliara.

But she had broken out of her own mold a few hours ago. It was so... _uncharacteristic_ of her to dive headfirst, plan-less and rashly, into unknown territory like that. For Sonic to have done that, he could believe, but not Fliara. The dragon's trade-mark was to have a plan formulated at least hours before schedule, and to be able to make her decisions as precise as possible- she called it 'being efficient' but Sonic called it 'being paranoid'. That was just one more reason the two never got along. He liked to think on his feet, she liked to use her time to the fullest. He liked to save time, but Fliara would spend all the time she could afford. Maybe it had something to do with a dragon's lengthy lifespan.

In some ways, Shadow was like Sonic. He preferred to get things done quickly when given the chance- he could almost imagine the dragon's voice repeating _'would you rather it be done quickly or it be done right'_ - but there were many occasions when that phrase held no meaning.

_Bah_, Thought Shadow to himself. _Enough about the blue burden and hyper hothead- I have to figure out what happened._

The fault was easily placed- Dan-Chilack must have been at the bottom of this. But if he had the power to knock them all out, why not capture and destroy them? _The mind boggles. _He mused quietly, shaking his head. He could figure out the motive and execution later- right now he had to deal with the outcome. For one, he was separated from the rest of the group- a bad thing indeed. He wondered vaguely if the rest of the group was on their own, and if so, how were they doing? If Sonic was all by himself, the answer was obvious- awful. He should probably try finding the blue hedgehog first- but running into any member of the group would be beneficial.

Looking down at the chaos emerald in his hand, he murmured a quick 'chaos control' and grinned as the power poured into him and the room appeared to illuminate with a soft green glow. In reality, he had used the chaos power to improve his eyesight- trying to make it glow would take too much energy and the illumination spell wouldn't work in small areas like this one.

Shadow sighed, turned to his left, and walked half-heartedly through the path, looking for his friends.

* * *

The group is seperated? Is Sonic okay? What the hell is up with Fliara? Why did I just now discover that fanfiction dot net eats the tab button? 

Also, if you notice the first paragraph in Shadow's P.O.V., There's some character development to Alexi. She's _sick_. It's pretty much the only reason she's not a complete Mary-Sue. But I love Alexi anyway. (Hugs Alexi)

"DEAR GOD GET OFF OF ME!"

...heh... sorry there, Alexi.


End file.
